Eileen Rose, Long Shot Novena (Rough Trade/BMG) 9+
Eileen Rose is a Boston-born singer who has served time in bands like Daisy Chain and Fledgling while spending the past decade in London. Her country-inflected debut, Shine like It Does (2000) attracted a fair amount of attention. It would have made good sense for her to capitalize on the U.K.'s fascination with New Americana. However, the best artists rarely follow conventional good sense. Instead, her follow-up, Long Shot Novena, is an eclectic album that jumps all over the place stylistically, from the Velvets-drone title track to the Dylan-like "Two In One" and "Tom Waits Crooning," where she wisely sounds like no one but herself. Rose joins the hyper-talented pool of women like Eleni Mandell, Shannon Wright and Thalia Zedek who are creating intense, powerful music while bubbling under mainstream recognition. Rose's voice can range from sweet and breathy to a throaty roar nearly as rough as Zedek's. She sounds confident as a seasoned veteran, like Marianne Faithful. On "For Marlee," she goes straight for the gut, a shattering account of a Boston friend who was murdered, and the mother's anguish as the killer is still at large. "Long Shot Novena," "See How I Need You," "Good Man" and "White Dove's Awake" pack just as much punch. "Tom Waits Crooning" is probably the best song about another singer since Waits' former paramour Ricki Lee Jones wrote "Chuck E's In Love." The only thing holding Rose back from joining the ranks of rock goddesses like PJ Harvey are the earthbound folky exercises of "Snake," "Wheels Going By" and "Big Dog." Not that the songs are bad by any means. They measure up to anything by Gillian Welch. But her strength lie in the songs that show she is developing into a unique, important new voice in American music.
