Dressed
for success
It's
not often that listening to a record evokes the same buzz of satisfaction that
one gets upon finishing a particularly ripping book. Seldom does an album
sustain an arc of characters and situations that is consistently surprising,
amusing and touching. "Little Black Dress and Other Stories" is all this and
more.
Ex-Portlander Anny Celsi (pronounced Chelsea) departed these
rain-damaged streets for the sunny vistas of Los Angeles way back in the '80s.
In addition to writing songs, touring, working miserable day jobs and putting
out the occasional album, she must have soaked up some of that city's pulp
fiction vibe.
Her new record is rife with tales of troubled, ordinary folks trying to make
sense out of their circumstances. Men are driven to desperate measures by
calculating women, who are in turn disillusioned by the hollow promises of
other, better-dressed men.
And somehow, all these people meet for a bit of fun and forgetfulness in the
same broken-down bar, where a shot of cheap booze rushes to your head like the
piercing ring of an alarm clock. In fact, it's probably a joint where a singer
very much like Celsi sits on a rickety stage playing her songs and watching the
action.
Gracefully shifting her musical approach, Celsi is comfortable in any number
of guises. From the night-crawling torchy pop of "All I'm Gonna Say" and "Wicked
Little Heart," to full-tilt country ramblers "Little Black Dress" and "Empty
Hangers" the latter of which starts out with the line "Every girl deserves a
nervous breakdown" she never drops a stitch. Yet even when she's waxing cynical
and forlorn, she can't keep a little bit of girl-group giddiness from creeping
into her voice, as on "Summer Fling."
Celsi has a good lyrical eye, casting trenchant observations on tumbling in
and out of love. Her zinger about the end of an affair with a perpetually broke
musician is priceless: "You hear one bass solo, girls, you've pretty much heard
them all."
Despite the tough times and trying situations, Celsi clearly cares for her
people, as there always seems to be a little bit of light peering through the
dusty curtains of that dive bar or seedy hotel. One gets the feeling that the
price has been paid and lessons have been learned.
The album is produced by Kevin Jarvis another Portland music vet who
unflappably handles Celsi's many stylistic shifts with finesse, sensitivity and
precision.
And for your reading pleasure, Celsi considerately composed snappy little
short stories that accompany each song, found inside the disk cover.
It doesn't matter whether you're following her written
words or bouncing a foot to the surplus of winning melodies, "Little Black
Dress" is a perfect fit.
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