The new record from Chelsea Wolfe is a bit of goth rock goodness. It's decidedly more than just that, of course. And thanks go to producer David Andrew Sitek (TV on the Radio) for finding so many ways to showcase Chelsea's impressive voice here. She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She is nothing if not a layered release, both in sonic terms and in presentation.
There's a lot here in the package which suggests a debt owed to AOR stuff from earlier decades. Opener "Whispers in the Echo Chamber" wouldn't have sounded entirely out of place on rock radio during the Clinton years. That said, it's nuanced enought to warrant a listen, as is the urgent "House of Self-Undoing". And, of course, Sitek gives this all enough heft to keep even a casual listener engaged.
Wolfe commits to the genre and one can't ignore that on a record with songs titled "Unseen World" and "Eyes Like Nightshade". The genre is both goth-y and album rock, but Chelsea's voice is supple enough that I found moments of beauty creeping out from behind the black clothes and pale makeup. The undulating, near-operatic "Tunnel Lights", for example, suggests there's a lot of variety left within the limited confines of Wolfe's chosen style. And it's one of many tracks here that pleasantly surprised me.
She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She by Chelsea Wolfe is out now.
[Photo: Ebru Yildiz]