One Million Love Songs

白昼夢系ドリームポップも飲み込んだ感動のオルタナラブソング。
ジェシカ・ヴィシャス率いるシカゴの4人組。プロデュースにスネイル・メイル、ウェンズデイを手掛けてきたアレックス・ファラーを迎えた2作目。例えるならよりオルタナなマジースター。儚くも美しいメロディライン、白昼夢を漂うようなドリーミー、スロウコアの如く研ぎ澄まされた質感、オルタナな退廃的空気感、そしてタイトルからもわかるラブソング的要素もあり、ある種USインディ、オルタナのひとつの到達点といっても過言ではないほど。少女の熱い想いが痛いほどに伝わる感動の名作。

After a tearful debut album that embraced the chord simplicity of the Velvet Underground and the guitar tones and slow-burning melancholy of Cowboy Junkies and Twin Peaks, Jess Viscius and friends return with more heartache on Bnnys second album, One Million Love Songs. A somewhat livelier, more fully arranged album -- but only somewhat -- it finds our protagonist past the point of tears but seemingly resigned to loneliness. It begins with a humming synth drone, chirping songbirds, and simple, low guitar on "Missing." When Viscius voice enters, its with a whispery winter memory of kissing -- when nothing was missing -- before she brings us up to date with "March is crying/But the flowers bloom," and with that, the scene is set. The lusher, bittersweet "Good Stuff," with its layers of shimmering reverb, is easily the albums most positive ("Im hanging on to the sunshine"), although its good times are stuck in the past ("Remember when we met?"). More uptempo, irritated tracks like "Something Blue" and "Screaming, Dreaming" are almost grungy, and, longing for affection, Viscius takes a seductive turn on songs like "Nothing Lasts" and breathy highlight "Sweet." On the whole, though, One Million Love Songs is languid and stoic, with its few hopeful, determined lyrics tempered by phrases like "born blue," "sick of trying," and "caught up in the rain." If there is any doubt about her state of mind by the end, its settled by the devastating (and timeless) closer "No One," which takes less than 90 seconds to affirm "No one loves me anymore" ("Ive been trying to change/But you and I know that people just stay the same"). While that song is hard-hitting enough to count as a standout, One Million Love Songs is nothing if not consistent, with 11 gifts for the lonelyhearted. ~ Marcy Donelson