Record Reviews

Thalia Zedek

Been Here and Gone (Matador)

On the cover, there's a heart, suspended midair and draped in a night sky of stars and a waning crescent moon. The heart hangs in. A ladder rests under it. Is the ladder the only access to the lonely heart-shaped planet? Or what's left of an escape? Since this is Thalia Zedek, these and many other answers will not come easily. Come, her last band, was where most might remember her name, her impact. Dark is what most folks associate. Honest, dark, with Zedek's Marianne Faithfull rattle. The vocal similarity between the two rock misfits is only matched by their kindred lyrical topics: powerful gusts of love and loss and abuse and use and … oh! Been Here and Gone. It was descent. Someone climbed down from that ladder. Checked out. As Zedek's solo debut, Been Here and Gone is quite a fingerprint on a steamy career window fogged with critics gasping and grasping for snappy summations of her work in Come, Uzi, Live Skull, and Dangerous Birds. Here, she's joined by Come patriot Chris Brokaw (among others) in a more subtle, if no less blistering plaintive howl. The instrumentation is a bit more sensual than sexual this time out. Glistening guitar waves and piano/strings swells crash and ebb, but with less fury and more resolve. Here, Zedek strips down bare. Cabaret, intimate. Not unlike a PJ Harvey album in its challenge, you know you're going to love it -- but where and when? Been Here and Gone: The heart is a lonely planet. Then again, that ladder is still there.