russian red: i love your glasses

Little is known outside of her native Spain of Lourdes Hernández. With the recent release of her debut album I Love Your Glasses on Spanish label Eureka Records, that is likely to change. Choosing (quite astutely) to sing in English, the songstress who performs under the moniker Russian Red has drawn comparisons with Joanna Newsom and Feist, among others, and it will be a wonder if she isn’t pulled in to be the next voice of car and iPod commercials across the globe.

There is a rich goldmine of music here, filled out by an exquisitely haunting voice and crafty musicianship. Starting the album is ‘Cigarettes’, a quietly strummed acoustic number that could easily have come from any folk singer over the last thirty years, until the vocals kick in that is. Sung with a lilting vocal reminiscent of Dolly Parton circa ‘Jolene’, ‘Cigarettes’ generates a sense of regret and nostalgia that makes it difficult to believe Hernández is only twenty-two years old.

Just as you are getting comfortable with the guitar ballads, she throws a pop song curveball with first single, ‘They Don’t Believe’. Plucked right from the musical lexicon of artists such as Regina Spektor, Hernández sings with an upbeat fervour, complete with staccato snare drums and harmonising vocals that make you want to jump up and dance. Ah, but the musical surprises don’t stop there. The desperate howling of ‘Hold It Inside’ hints at the angst and vocal prowess of Boys For Pele-era Tori Amos, and a subject matter to match.

Elsewhere, ‘Kiss My Elbow’ and ‘Take Me Home’ push the steel guitar folk boundaries into the twangy smoky barrooms and jazz clubs frequented by the likes of Neko Case and Hem’s Sally Ellyson. Yet Hernández is comfortable in all of these genres, effortlessly switching instruments and sounding completely at ease. Even in the album closer, a slow acoustic cover of ’80s classic ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’, she takes a song so a part of musical history and manages to spin it in a new light, weaving new meaning into Cyndi Lauper’s lyrics.

For all its charms, I Love Your Glasses has minor flaws. Some of the songs beckon you in…and then end far too quickly. ‘Gone, Play On’, distressingly short at just over two minutes, is a prime example. By the end, when her voice echoes, the music long gone, you expect it to rise up and take over again, only to have the next song rush in to take its place. Also, although undeniably a wise marketing move to sing in English, Hernández often slurs her words, making them unclear and difficult to grasp. Despite this, however, Russian Red’s delicate emoting and passion overcome these flaws, making I Love Your Glasses a must.

[Eureka/PIAS; June 28, 2008]

Written by: Loria Near

Tags: i love your glasses, russian red

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 10:20 pm and is filed under albums & EPs, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.