‘Vertiginous Drop’ – Carol Hodge
Carol Hodge, who has been featured on this page several times has a new album, her fourth, out on March 10th. I’ve been lucky enough to have listened to it for a week or two and I can tell you this is a classy collection of future classics. The album is called ‘Vertiginous Drops’ and opens with full production on “Best Will In The Word”. It’s a song of good advice, common sense and perhaps most importantly hope. On top of that, it has some amazing hooks and an uplifting brass chorus. “The Price” has a Depeche Mode feel in its dark, bass-filled synth opening, but then turns into an epic synthed-up power ballad as Carol’s vocals kick in. This song makes me think that an 80s album covered by Carol Hodge would be better. “Grayson (Things Could Always Get Worse)” was an excellent choice for the first single from the album. It also has darkness, but again a vein of hope. Carol’s voice evokes great emotion in this song. In a parallel universe, “Grayson” would top the charts everywhere. I tasted Human League tops, but much better vocals than the Oakeyman, while listening to “Never Run Out Of Things To Worry About” and if any track on this record was chosen for the dance remix, it would have to be this one. The multi-track vocals are ethereal, heavenly and wildly voluptuous. “Clean The Slate” opens with a beautiful choral sound and builds something stygian in its darkness with heavy guitar attack, at least I think it’s mass guitar attack. Some of Carol’s best music just comes from her and the piano and while this album is very broad in scope and reach “Giving It Up Now” is mostly Carol and her piano to the fore, the band is a bit more subtle here, at least until about two minutes as the song soared into the musical stratosphere and showcased the power and range of Carol’s luxurious voice. The song closes with a very clever coda of “all I can say for sure is there will be uncertainty“. Sounds obvious, but not many say it, do they?
If you like Carol’s ballads then you will love “Oh, Amanda!”. The circus sideshow piano riff section adds a delightfully eerie tone. I can imagine this song being featured on the soundtrack to one of Neil Gaiman’s dark stories. The next track, “Bitch, Don’t Break My Serenity” has the feel of someone digging into Brian Wilson’s brain and finding things he was never allowed to record. In fact, the Beach Boys’ cover of this eldritchian masterpiece would be quite special, perhaps with backing vocals by Carol herself and possibly Siouxsie Sioux as well. The harmonies and soft synth drone in “Wrong Side Of The Glass” makes me think of ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’. I know that’s not the subject of it, but just the feeling the song gave me. That sure sums up a person who might have reached the end of his time, deep down a song so sad yet sublime. The album closes with what I consider to be Carol’s best song to date. It evokes the derelict cabaret theater in Berlin of the 1930s in its musical manner. But the lyrics are profound and show the underlying futility of our lives and perhaps how small a part of our universe it is. A true masterpiece of an album where Carol proves what a talent she is.
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