Marina V - Something of My Own

After reviewing Charlotte Martin’s CD, and finding it remotely notable, I was assaulted by a barrage of ads for the upcoming Liz Phair tour, touting Charlotte as an opener. When things like this happen (and this isn’t the first time), I wonder if I even have any musical taste at all, at least in a commercial way. But then there’s Marina V’s touching, delicate, triumphant, and wholly absorbing debut Something of My Own. Not only is her story (Russian immigrant at an early age - which makes her “On This Christmas Night” all the more sweet - who made her own name, named her publishing company after the first “bright” thing she owned, no cigarettes but still hair dye, smart parents, Beatles fan) interesting and refreshing, but so is her music. The lyrics aren’t overly dramatic or complex, but they need not be with Marina’s air-tight use of both the bass and treble of her piano. Many piano arteests (spelling intentional) either go to one extreme or the other, ie: “Here’s my nasty song, all minor keys, grr!” But Marina V spreads her breathy, honeydew voice over great harmonies and great pacing. Instead of using her voice as the primary focus of her songs, she uses it as another instrument, and her songs become mercurial (the best examples of this being “Killing My Dream” and the romantic and emotive “Ocean”). While the lyrics often stick close to nature and paint landscapes (“The coming storm enslaves me/ And closes in on my only sunray/ The ancient forest whispers/ Hypnotic prose that lingers” from “Holy One”), in her treatment of songs, she tends to try to branch out and feel her way around their meanings. This effectively adds to their liquid effect (fitting the container of your mind, people- Follow the metaphor!). Drawbacks? Marina needs a back up band, not a synthesizer, to pull out a bigger, more hearty sound. The only song this works well with is “Falling,” but it reminded me too much of Fiona Apple’s “First Taste” to make me soft to it. Her Russian-sung songs left me longing for more, but then again, I’m a sucker for the foreign tongue. Basically, someone needs to cut this girl a check for some big money because she needs a more bossy back up sound. This talent to burn is much more defiant, sympathetic, and pure than anything I’ve heard in awhile. [www.marinav.com]