Published on Jul 14, 2015
English singer-songwriter-producer Jane Weaver has been busy for the last 20-plus years, writing, performing, and collaborating with bands like Kill Laura and Misty Dixon. She finally began releasing solo material in 2001 and put out five albums in the years between then and 2011. Last year, Jane Weaver released her album The Silver Globe to much (well-deserved) critical acclaim. This year, she has decided to give this disc the “deluxe” treatment, re-issuing it along with a complete second disc of material on her own label, Bird Records. That release is mainly alternate takes and outtakes from The Silver Globe, which has been titled The Amber Light.
Although Weaver’s previous albums are interesting and have earned her much acclaim, this album is more mature and more focused. The electronica pop suits her sensibilities very well in that it allows her ample room to veer between straight ahead electronica to heady dream-pop to indie-pop, but still remained committed to the sound and vision of this album.
The Silver Globe begins strong and puts the best material up front. Apart from the ambient drone of the title-track opener, it dissolves into electronic indie pop of “Argent,” followed by the rocking “Electric Mountain.” Then, things downshift to the gauzy dream pop of “Arrows.” From there, she picks up with the upbeat electronica and falsetto on “Don’t Take My Soul”. Then comes the minimalist lullaby “Cells,” and picks back up again with the upbeat “Mission Desire.” The album starts to quiet down a bit in the second half, finishing with the beautiful and plaintive “Your Time In This World Is Just Temporary.” While the drums help propel the song forward, the aching vocals make this a standout track.
I suppose the downside to someone as prolific as Jane Weaver is that her musical restlessness results in lots of short, simple songs that are structurally very simple, often built around only one or two melodic constructions. While the melodies themselves are usually very good, I can’t shake the feeling that these could develop into better, more complex and interesting songs if they were given some more time and attention.
The pacing of the album gives it an ebb-and-flow, while still offering the stylistic twists and turns that have come to define her as an artist up to this point. Nonetheless, this disc uses the sheen of electronica to help bind the material together to give it the much-needed consistency it requires to stand together as an album.