Christa Couture - The Living Record

  by Lisa Torem

published: 29 / 4 / 2013

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Review

Christa Couture is a Canadian singer-songwriter whose new album, 'The Living Record', is an outcry of emotions, vivid imagery and lilting lyrics. From start to finish, she firmly establishes her grounding as far as geographic soothsayer. On her previous album, the one-time child cancer survivor paid tribute to the loss of her infant son and, here too, Couture throws 200 percent of self into her creative recording, even when that means excavating a dark psyche. Style-wise, picture Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos DNA samples blended together in a test tube. The album begins with ‘You Were Here in Michigan’, which is about a holiday at an artist retreat. She struggles yet delights in her newfound freedom, yet offers no disclaimer – “I am lost in the city but don’t pity on me,” she sings and in another moment she explains, “I’ll be on the hill trying to distill…” ‘Good Bayou’ contains charming rhyme schemes sung with superb timing. On ‘Lucky or Lost’ she delivers an initial message, which is cloaked in despair – “Capacity for joy, again, is broken,” but she goes on to explore deeper realms and outcomes – “Deep down in the soul/Deep down in the core/ See how your garden grows” and, ultimately, she declares, you’ll either be one or the other. Her duet with Jim Byrnes on the pulsating ‘Pirate Jenny and the Storm,’ rises from the ashes of her musical theatre origins. She brings her character to life with compassionate introspection – “There are those who hate her though I love her,” and finally, she laments because “Your singing is never heard”. The exploratory coda is especially satisfying. With ‘Parasite’, Couture’s band rocks hard although her voice still retains that core sweetness and it spirals snugly around the complex text – “Baby, only you can recall the thoughts so awful,” for example, is the stunner, which leads into a strong guitar solo and a fluid rhythm section. The tearful line, “I’m not lonely here because loss becomes my lover,” and the hovering query, “What are we?” becomes a mantra in ‘Hopeless Situation’. Her declaration is framed by an expressive finger style guitar arrangement and a strident counter melody. “My mouth is a cocktail, lemon and chalk,” she insists in the frank ‘Sing For Me’. And when the curious line, “There’s a sea/A little sesame”, from ‘An Invitation In Three Parts’, ambles into a lap steel and vibrant percussion session, it’s easy to feel deliriously swept away by her gorgeous range and sentiment. The second rocker, ‘Pussycat Pussycat’, is a saucy tribute to historically mod London. There she goes from “pub to pub”, experiences “getting mugged” and feels exhilarated by “all the poetry that’s hanging in the air.” And then in a gigantic leap forward she sings the second duet. On ‘Paper Anniversary’, Couture, offering a much more mature perspective, grapples with and glorifies growing older gracefully. “A bag full of stars that are ours to have/We’ll buy paper and glue with the pennies we save,” begins the cycle and then “Many things start and slip away/But with time some things don’t go…” she concludes. ‘Wooden Shoes and Windmills’ is another deep epiphany. “I was gone before I was gone,” she sings, passionately, and describing a romantic downfall – “That night on your lawn was a drunken display/The summer of our friendship/But I think we might have wrecked it when we fell in love…” The final song, ‘The Way Of The Dido,’ deviates from the previous textures and is the sole piano-based ballad. “This is the farthest you’ve ever been from yourself,” she ventures and as the narrative flows lovingly along, it meanders longingly, as well. “Careful, you’re treading on very thin ice,” she forewarns. At this point, we’ve caught on to the perils but she’s earned our trust - Couture takes us over the rough edges to land safely home.

Track Listing:-

1 You Were Here in Michigan
2 Good Bayou
3 Lucky or Lost
4 Pirate Jenny and the Storm
5 Parasite
6 Hopeless Situation
7 Sing for Me
8 An Invitation in Three Parts
9 Pussycat Pussycat
10 Paper Anniversary
11 Wooden Shoes and Windmills
12 The Way of the Dodo (The Living Record)

Band Links:-

http://christacouture.com/
https://twitter.com/christacouture
http://www.songkick.com/artists/53230-
https://www.youtube.com/user/christaco
https://www.facebook.com/officialchris