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Rating: "Sarah who?!?" you probably asked yourself upon spotting her name among the reviews.
Canadian, born in 1977, at the end of the '90s Sarah Slean secured a contract with an independent label and quickly released an EP (“Universe”, 1997) and an album (“Blue Parade”, 1998) mainly consisting of piano and vocal ballads that align her with her more famous compatriot (and semi-namesake) Sarah McLachlan and the very early Tori Amos.
"How boring!" you might say, and indeed, you're not far off. Despite a good compositional vein that surfaces here and there, it all feels too familiar and neither adds nor subtracts from the now considerable array of piano-playing singer-songwriters.
However, the records achieve decent success in her homeland, and major labels start taking an interest in the still very young Slean, who signs a new contract with WEA. In 2002, “Night Bugs” finally comes out, musically representing a clear change of direction that alienates some of her early fans.
The shy and anonymous young girl from the first two works has transformed into a chanteuse at once refined and eccentric, intelligent and amusing. The piano still reigns supreme, but her songs are now adorned with elaborate arrangements, dense string sections, sudden brass outbursts, xylophones, glockenspiels, and various delightful adornments that create a deliciously over-the-top atmosphere.
Sarah's new sound is now closer to certain works by Rufus Wainwright or the records produced by Jon Brion for Fiona Apple. Apple immediately comes to mind, too, to describe Slean's smoky vocal timbre, even though the latter can boast far superior range and expressiveness.
The first three songs of the album alone would be sufficient to justify the purchase (as well as make many of her more famous and celebrated colleagues turn green with envy): “Eliot”, dedicated to the writer T. S. Eliot, initially immerses the listener in a smoky nightclub atmosphere before transforming into a majestic orchestral crescendo; “Weight”, a track filled with rancor and frustration (“Do you know the weight I’m under?/ Everything revolves around you, you and you/ Soon the shoulder falls”), is supported by a powerful piano line and relentless percussion throughout its duration, while “Duncan” is one of those unforgettable songs that stays with you forever: it opens with a dissonant piano melody before exploding into a rousing chorus (“Oh you fool, you fool/ Don’t give in to Fate!/ If this is all we’ve got to fight for / Rage my darling, rage!/…/This is holy war!/ We must fight and fight again”).
The rest of the album, though not reaching the heights of the first three songs, maintains absurdly high standards. Within the verses of “Drastic Measures”, one can trace the programmatic manifesto of the new ambitious Slean: “I should go to drastic measures / Steal enormous works of art / Write a piece for eighteen violins / It’s not a march but it’s a start/ … /Please say I will never be like that/ Safe / Politely dazed/ Politely crazy”.
“Book Smart, Street Stupid” (the title refers to the expression her father used to describe Sarah) is a sorrowful nocturnal ballad where her voice laden with passion is accompanied by her faithful piano and a melancholy section of brass. The incredibly versatile Slean also gifts us an intense instrumental for strings (“Dark Room”) arranged entirely by her, like the rest of the album.
“Sweet Ones” and “Bank Accounts” represent instead the more cheerful and carefree side of “Night Bugs”; the former, chosen as the single, manages to be catchy and contagious without descending into the banal, while the latter closes the album with a smile, even though behind its playful and somewhat frivolous atmosphere lies perhaps the most committed track of the entire album with its ironic critiques of modern materialistic and superficial society (“I have a future/ I have substantial bank accounts/ Make lots of money/ And hope it don’t run out/ I am a beauty/ It just takes me four to five hours a day/…/ What a disease when I put my faith in these").
It's not an album that changes the history of music forever, but certainly, in its genre, it is an almost unknown little masterpiece, give it a chance and I'm sure you won't regret it.
In 2004, Sarah released “Day One”, marking a shift towards a sunnier and more pop-rock style, expanding on the “uptempo” insights of “Night Bugs”; an excellent album, only slightly inferior to its extraordinary predecessor (but perhaps it deserves a review all to itself, sooner or later).
Sad Postscript: “Night Bugs” is unfortunately only published in Canada, so it can only be obtained through importation; there are websites where it can be purchased without breaking the bank but it is still a hassle, not to mention a real shame for Slean: certainly, her music is not Top 10 material but it would surely have its audience—go figure, the record labels…
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Eliot (04:22)
Armies and ice and dirty green
Newspapers, shovels sand on the breeze
I think of Eliot when I smell the street and it's sometimes wise
Just to shut your eyes.
Workers and lovers make their living space neat
Bent out of shape over what to eat
I dream of Eliot but I am discreet 'cause it's sometimes wise
Just to shut your eyes.
How sure how right?
Can anyone be on sight?
I said I had Hope.
I lied
Oo the city in the winter the sewage the steam
You fill buildings with people and they rip at the seams
Somebody's suffering infected my dreams and
Don't they know? it's it's it's it's just my old soul
How sure how right?
Can anyone be on sight?
I said I had Hope
I lied. I lied.
So calm so wise
Give him the Nobel Prize
He said he had Hope
He lied
o. oooo. wuho ho ho
02 Weight (03:15)
What did I give to you
What did you give to me
A nothing-trail of silences that warp in the rain
You said I don't really know the reason
It's just not the same
What a vacant breath and when,
When you say my name
And do you know the weight I'm under
When everything revolves around you you you you
Soon the shoulder falls
All forgotten handshakes
Names like falling leaves
Apathy will spread like wildfire
Take you away from me
I'm leaning out the window
Gonna catch the August rain
I'm gonna fill your mouth up
Make you live again
And do you know the weight I'm under
When everything revolves around you you you you
Soon the shoulder falls.
05 Drastic Measures (05:41)
I should go to drastic measures
Steal enormous works of art
Write a piece for eighteen violins
It's no march
But it's a start
Rub their eyes and wake, distracted
Frantically they fill their days
Please say I will never be like that
Safe
Politely dazed
Politely cra-azy
Don't you want my love?
It's a cloud, it's a broken boat
But it might make you laugh a bit
Easier
I'm like trees in the midnight parks
Oozing danger, igniting sparks
We've been left by the viaducts
With the last flame of the universe
I never held a truer notion
Then when my dear I held your hand
May your shadow always follow you
Through
Our get-away plan
Out master pla-an
Don't you want my love?
It's a cloud, it's a broken boat
But it might make you laugh a bit
Easier
I'm like the trees and the midnight parks
Oozing danger, igniting sparks
We've been left by the viaducts
With the last flame of the universe
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Cra-azy
Don't you want my love?
It's a cloud, it's a broken boat
But it might make you laugh a bit
Easier
I'm like the trees in the midnight parks
Oozing danger, igniting sparks
We've been left by the viaducts
With the last flame of the universe
Oh, don't you want my love?
It's a cloud, it's a broken boat
But it might make you laugh a bit
Easier
I'm like the trees in the midnight parks
Throwing tantrums, igniting sparks
We've been left by the viaducts
With the last flame of the universe
� S. Slean
10 My Invitation (03:46)
You are what they call the human season
You are all the alphabet in one
You are every colour of confusion
You are all the silence I've become
Love me for
Stupid reasons
I like those most
Wide-eyed but
Worth believing
God knows
Damn the angry voice that keeps us quiet
The editor whose work is never done
Keeping pretty words between my teeth and
Sweet confessions underneath my tongue
Drowsy contemplation
Do I let you in
This is my invitation
But how do I begin?
She has such an awful lot of soldiers
Quite a lovely army all her own
Night and day they stand before the fortress
Very safe but very all alone
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By Yosif
A work that undoubtedly deserved greater fortune.
Sarah, a 360-degree artist full of endless resources, is part of that circle of personalities dedicated to that female singer-songwriter genre with an omnipresent piano.
