Imitation Of War

2019年作『SPRING』が評価とセールス共に大フィーバーしたロサンゼルス拠点、アイタスカ名義で活動するアシッド・フォーカー / SSW ケイラ・コーエン。喜怒哀楽盛り込みまくり弾き語りがトレードマークの彼女より5年振りの新作『IMITATION OF WAR』が到着!

本作よりバンドサウンドを一気に強化し、ペイヴメントやダスター、ヨ・ラ・テンゴ級の緩いようでキメるインディラヴァーのツボを突く内容に。まさにMVのようなカリフォルニアの自然公園近くにあるスタジオで、プロデューサーのロビー・コディとギターアレンジを起点にしながらレコーディング。その自然を浴びた姿勢は、先行シングルにもなったタイトル曲の宅録ライクな雰囲気を交えつつ、ケイラの澄み渡った歌声が青空に響く所に顕著。必殺メロディに全インディラヴァーの胸を撃ち抜き泣き崩れるはず。

リンダ・パーハクスとワイズ・ブラッドを繋ぐかの如く、アシッド・フォークと現行USインディの美味しいブレンドを叩き出したケイラ、今後の活動に大きな影響を及ぼしそうな1枚!

During the 2010s, guitarist Kayla Cohen established her solo pseudonym Itasca with a series of hushed, sepia-toned releases full of intricate fingerpicking and wispy reflections. The projects last two albums of the decade saw her flesh out her sound with a backing band while remaining distinctly reserved. Coming after a gap of over four years, her first album of the next decade, Imitation of War, finds Itasca taking the bands sound a step further by plugging in and dipping a toe into rock territory for the first time, if a particularly hazy, heavy-lidded, and still folk-style variety of rock. At the same time, she leans even further into historical, mythological, and philosophical subject matter, as foreshadowed in song titles like "El Dorado," "Olympia," and "Molieres Reprise." Its worth mentioning that Imitation of War was produced by Robbie Cody (Wand, Cordovas) and features Evan Backer (Cory Hanson, Bonnie "Prince" Billy) on bass and Gun Outfits Daniel Swire and Wands Evan Burrows on drums. The albums opener, the ambiguous "Milk," refers to the legend of Genevieve and the mirror while introducing the meandering live feel of the record as a whole. The relatively energetic, trippy title track then picks up the pace and turns up the volume, but "relatively" is a key word here, and the set list only approaches that songs level of extroversion again on the sprawling, nearly ten-minute "Easy Spirit," a centerpiece of sorts that appears midway through Side B. Along the way, songs like the lovely "Dancing Woman," a folky entry that floats through complex modulations, and the sparse, sentimental "Under Gates of Cobalt Blue" offer moments of beauty and levity -- again relatively speaking. It all works well together sonically and conceptually, resulting in an album that is Itascas most cohesive and mystical yet -- and thats saying something. ~ Marcy Donelson