Dawn Landes - Fireproof

A girl with a guitar from Kentucky: that’s Dawn Landes. And, of course, what she does is folk music, what else? But she also is a modern girl, and ‘Fireproof’ is arty as well as profoundly classic.

Her voice, limpid and motherly, is made to sing lullabies, and she does. But to her lover, which is more original (‘Goodnight Lover’), and more romantic too. There is a lot of romance in ‘Fireproof’, a candlelit album embroidered on eternal folk themes. The record, however, recalls not only Woody Guthrie, but also the post-modern experiments of Joanna Newsom, though it remains, feel relieved, much more bearable, while her high-pitched voice sometimes comes down from its ethereal heights to produce a warmer tone, a redder light.

The album also benefits from an excellent orchestration which, though discrete, manages to bring some variety to all this sweetness. The delicious candy hides a soft bitterness that reveals itself in the mock-frailty of ‘Bodyguard’ or in the traditional ‘I Don’t Need No Man’. In this modernized piece of Americana, Dawn Landes reveals a rebellious scansion that one wouldn’t have expected at first sight. Equally, ‘Private Little Hell’, on the verge of hatred, is as such a cruel game in the end of which noone gets really hurt, but that could very well haunt you for a little while.

‘Picture Show’, one of the best tracks, starts as pure 1930s blues, and, from this nostalgic basis, turns into an insistent, eroticizing and finger-clicking rhythm while Landes chants ‘Lo-lo-lo-lo-lollipop’ (something of Gainsbourg, isn’t it?): a reminder of the fact that folk music can also be humorous and not only sentimental…

When she tries to be more violent, like in some parts of ‘Kids In A Play’, she can’t help sounding faltering, and that’s precisely why she is so moving. Of course, one may say, she lacks the snappy, punchy capabilities of June Carter or even Feist. But one feels good in the homely sweetness of ‘Fireproof’, in the childhood reminiscence of ‘Toy Piano’, a well-named instrumental track, or in the appealing love song ‘Dig Me A Hole’ with its Dylan-esque harmonica.

‘Fireproof’ because it is an ode to passion (the literary name for sentimentalism), this elegant and delightful record, highly recommended for romantic nights, is a pretty piece of modern classicism, not so original, not so bad.