MP3 Alicia Dara - The Secret Dream Of Tigers
21st-century torch songs, cabaret rock and lyrical pop.
12 MP3 Songs
POP: New Romantic, ROCK: Glitter
Details:
Alicia Dara is on fire. You can hear it in every song off her newest CD, “The Secret Dream of Tigers”. Even the quiet ones give off sparks. Dedicated to “all the artists, with love and encouragement”, this is the work of an artist at the top of her game.
The culmination of 2 years of work with producer Jason Staczek, “The Secret Dream of Tigers” boasts impressive and varied production. The standout tracks are “Trouble”, a killer love song that features Dara’s stunning soprano voice at it’s most seductive, and her cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, which might just be the definitive version. Dara and Staczek invert the tempo, changing it from 4/4 to 6/8, and adding a fantastic surprise at the end. It has a breath-taking cinematic quality. Someone should snap it up for a film soudtrack!"Black Muddy River", which praises the power of female appetites, is a dazzling tour-de-force, with tribal drums and lush harmonies.
Staczek’s Hammond B-3 adds anthemic beauty to standout love songs like “Trouble” and “The Tragedy”, and Seattle favorites Ian Moore and Johnny Sangster add soul-stirring guitars to the mix. Moore’s soulful tenor also joins Dara’s vocals on the haunting lament “Bulletproof”, which rivals the production style of one of Dara’s idols, Daniel Lanois.
Dara is an accomplished wordsmith. Many songs have been written about “Isabel Archer” (the heroine of Henry James’ novel, “The Portrait of A Lady”), but none have taken the subject into philosophy via cabaret-style barroom swagger. “Leather Jacket” reads like a cautionary tale about the evils of buying too much into the surface of one’s own image, certainly a peril for an artist of Dara’s glamour and grace.
The title track is a thundering pop anthem, filled with the glory of the 80’s via 60’s jangle-pop. Dara has always been proud of her 80’s influences and even goes so far as to cry out for them in “The Bowery”.
In the opening track, “Catapult”, Dara sings of a dark power that’s been pressing on her but is now fading away. Never more poised and poetic, she has clearly found some mysterious new strength and able to call on it at will. You heard it here first: Alicia Dara is on fire.
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