Leonard Mynx Vesper
(SELF RELEASED)
[DEATH SONGS] I first heard Leonard Mynx at an open-mic night. He played “Mary,” an aching tune about a young girl’s hard-knock life. As he finger-picked his guitar, his voice came out low and calm, like an alt-country Leonard Cohen. “Mary quit school and decided she’d take a train out west,” he began. “She was eager to see some skies beyond her broken home.” It was no shock Mary died at the end of the song. What shocked was Mynx’s delivery: He seemed fascinated by, but also accustomed to, the darkness in his words.
On Vesper, Mynx’s solo debut, his hypnotically distant delivery (that familiar reverb is courtesy of M. Ward producer/sideman Adam Selzer) is usually set against material that’s almost comically sad. Everyone in Mynx’s world—including our narrator—has a broken heart, serious addiction or is just plain dead. But Mynx never oversells the material. He makes relentless misery sound pretty damn good—even on a nine-minute, pitch-black song about a brother sent off to war, where Mynx sings: “We used to play guns when we were just kids/ I’d say I hit ’im, he’d say I missed/ I just hope his luck keeps up like this.” It doesn’t, of course. CASEY JARMAN.
Laura Gibson Beasts of Seasons
(HUSH)
[FUNERAL SONGS] Last week at Lola’s Room, Laura Gibson was singing the quiet, ruminative “Come By Storm,” off her new record Beasts of Seasons, when the unthinkable happened: Her mic cut out. “I’m sorry, but I’m not the kind of singer who can belt it out without a microphone,” she said between songs. “I don’t really have that kind of voice.” Instead, Gibson has one of the sweetest, most comforting voices you’ll ever hear; listening to Beasts of Seasons, one gets the sense she’d be as adept at telling great bedtime story as singing songs about death.
And on the record, it’s obvious Gibson has mortality on her mind. Split evenly (like the old folk LPs she so revers) into two distinct halves—“Communion Songs” and “Funeral Songs”—almost every track directly relates to the central theme of human existence. “Shadows On Parade” opens with the ominous (and gorgeous) hum of feedback and distortion, before the sun parts to reveal Gibson’s voice and finger-picked nylon-string guitar. At nearly eight minutes long, it’s Gibson’s “Desolation Row,” an absolutely stunning ballad embellished with distant horns and producer Tucker Martine’s subtle mastery of atmosphere. The lightly galloping “Spirited” has crossover potential written all over it, and despite its glacial pace, “Glory”—Gibson’s ode to her mother—ends the record on a high note, offering reflection and hope. Yeah, Beasts of Seasons is sad, but Gibson has a knack for making even the sad songs sound hopeful. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER.
SEE IT: Leonard Mynx plays Friday, Feb. 20 at LaurelThirst Public House. 9:30 pm. $5. 21+. Laura Gibson plays Tuesday, Feb. 24, at Music Millennium. 7 pm. Free. All ages.
