Morgane Matteuzzi – Inner Voices
I haven’t heard harmonizing like this since Brian Wilson got his brothers and evil cousin to sing. Only that if in the case of Mr. Wilson, he was busy serenading God with his wholesome Californian mini-symphonies, Morgane Matteuzzi is unlikely to be busy praising the same deity.
“Inner Voices” is like a Haunted House in the Amusement Park that you wander through by some embarrassing mistake. This is in no way to suggest that the experience is not worthy of consideration. No, it’s merely terrifying.
It takes about the halfway point of the song’s duration for the screams to meld with the pitch-perfect singing to really grasp the full picture. It reminds me of Trent Reznor’s tortured “The Wretched.” Just like that song, “Inner Voices” is much more than mere shock tactics. It echoes something truthful and wholly frightening.
Clarence Kelly – Halloween
Clarence Kelly takes a different route at celebrating our horror-fetish holiday of Halloween than most of his musical counterparts. While others are busy screaming and plugging in their guitars into their distortion pedals, Kelly would rather play wholesome, clean-sounding chords mixed in with church choir vocals to echo the same doom and glam fascination.
Kelly’s lyrics serve as a recollection of the singer’s easygoing upbringing and the sense of mischief with which one’s early life is usually lived. It’s a rebel youth anthem disguised behind retro-synths, a tactic not alike those used by those loveable Las Vegas goofs, the Killers.
Speaking of the synths, they layer clean and simple lines like pumpkin spice on an overly expensive coffee at Starbucks. Kelly’s voice rings heartfelt and true on the chorus, like a tried and tested pro knowing when to hit the break and when to speed off into the sunset.
