Ambulette - The Lottery EP

Think bizarre love child of Portishead and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Ambulette combines Maura Davis’ classically trained, silky voice, with a rich soundscape of pensive guitars, haunting piano, and jazzy drums. The Richmond, VA singer, formerly of the band Denali has hit her stride on this album, creating an Indie-rock project that is intimate and brooding a-la Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses, and Pretty Girls Make Graves. The band’s debut EP, The Lottery (named for the Shirely Jackson short-story about fate, loss, and isolation), has a sensuous, haunting feel, and lyrics that revolve around love, and love lost. The first track “I’ve Got More,” starts with an edgy swell of guitar and drums, and the lyrics “I know you, you know me, is it something in this room, that heavy feel?” The first track sets the stage, perfectly, for the rest of the album, introducing the theme of a budding relationship, “Do you like what you see?” Davis sings, “I’ve got more.” Strong lyrics permeate The Lottery, on the album’s second track “Fall,” she sings “It’s easy to run away, or else I will fall into you, say your heart melts all you have, finish what you started.” The song “Seconds Til Midnight” features the lyrics, “What do you want, what do you need, is it something I have?” This album is more than a break-up album. This is a whole relationship in five songs. Ambulette is definitely a band to watch. This is a delicate, sentimental album is heartbreakingly honest. The final track “If You Go Away” is a cover of Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel’s famous song, once performed by the likes of Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Neil Diamond. The Lottery is kind of album that you will voluntarily leave on repeat. [www.astralwerks.com]