Godmother

Since emerging in the early 2000s, Josephine Foster has been consistently growing within the bounds of her unique style. Over a body of work that yielded a new album every few years, her operatically trained vocals and gentle acoustic guitar playing took forms that ranged from psychedelic folk to Tin Pan Alley-informed songwriting to woozy romps that sounded beamed in from the saloons of bygone eras. The various sides of Fosters musical personality have always been wide-ranging, but Godmother adds an entirely new dimension, replacing the organic instrumentation and lived-in atmospheres of earlier work with layers of synthesizers, fluid bass lines, and programmed electronic drums. This metamorphosis comes on slowly, with opening tracks "Hum Menina" and "Sparks Fly" gradually introducing new sounds to Fosters familiar spare guitar figures and cascading voice. It begins with the slow swell of synth tones gliding around the stereo field low in the mix, but soon grows to include a steady pulse of a muted kick drum, deep bass synth, and cosmic electronic atmospheres. The most active songs on Godmother almost approach dancey synth pop levels of excitement. The pulsing drum machine rhythms, self-harmonizing vocals, and increasingly distorted synth leads of tracks like "Nun of the Above" and "Guardian Angel" result in songs that are both catchy and meditative. At times, Fosters synth experiments on Godmother inhabit a galaxy similar to fellow interstellar traveler the Space Lady or the abstract pop musings of acts like Cate Le Bon or Jane Weaver, but the songs are all anchored by the same patient reflection and mysterious character that has been at the core of all of Fosters creations. This is especially apparent on tracks like "Gold Entwine," where brushed drums dance with echoey synth burbles, and closer "The Sum of Us All," which finds Fosters lonely vocals and acoustic guitar directing an arrangement that eventually brings in stacks of synths to help deliver playful melodies. Godmother is an unexpected and wonderfully executed expansion of Fosters craft. Her music has always been thoughtful, personal, and uniquely constructed, but Godmother is especially exciting as it runs so far and so fast in a different direction than she ever has before, committing fully to the risks and swooping changes that come to define the album. ~ Fred Thomas