(2019) William Brittelle - Spiritual America


Review:
If a classically minded prog-rocker were to create a song cycle featuring a female lead singer, strings, electronics, electric guitars, brass, percussion, and woodwinds, it might sound something like ‘s Spiritual America. To describe it as audacious isn’t off-base, but for this Brooklyn-based composer it’s consistent with the kind of genre-bending material for which he’s become known. The recording plays as if the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of New Amsterdam Records set out to distill every bold gesture the label stands for into a single, standalone statement. Though his is the sole name on the cover, it’s not a solo production. Wye Oak members Jenn Wasner (vocals) and Andrew Stack (drums, bass), guitarist Ben Cassorla, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the NYC-based chamber orchestra Metropolis Ensemble take part, the leader himself credited with synthesizers, electronics, piano, and samples (Marc Dancigers and Zach Hanson also play guitar, the latter bass too). It’s undoubtedly Brittelle’s project, however: he masterminded it and wrote all the material but for “I Know the Law,” a bonus track by Wye Oak he re-imagined. That said, Wasner and Stack’s contributions are so critical Wye Oak’s name could conceivably have appeared on the front cover as collaborators to Brittelle. Melody’s paramount in these oft-heavy, cinematic songs, and changes happen fast, with sounds colliding rapidly without collapsing into incoherence. When an unaccompanied flute appears for a moment at the center of “Topaz Were the Waves,” the effect startles for being so rare. Certainly one of the key elements is Wasner’s singing, given that she’s at the forefront of all eight songs. No one need worry on that count: Brittelle’s recording benefits mightily from her voice, which exudes a warm, inviting lustre. His arrangements and compositions likewise impress, the latter elevated in particular by a remarkable command of melody; earworms elevate many a song (“The cars outside seem to die” from “True Hunger”; “Nostalgia is a drug, nostalgia is a poison” in “Forbidden Colors”; the title track’s “There are photographs / From beneath the waves / In your father’s room”), so much that you’ll likely hear them echoing in your head long after the recording’s over. To say his mercurial material dazzles is an understatement; transfixes might be more accurate.


Media Report:
Genre: art pop, classical
Source: CD
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits