Singer/songwriter Jamie Fooks (Jane Vain) lays her soulful voice over harmonic indietronica, while peppering it all with some additional elements. While sometimes Love Is can drag, and other times get a mite full of itself, there’s a splendor that can’t be denied.
“Don’t Mind Us” opens Love Is with Fooks’ high melody, alongside an electronic-meets-folk backbeat; the choral piece is effective in its sentiment. Jane Vain goes for a more disco-dark attitude on the following “I’m So Afraid”, with almost a drive to the tempo. That up-tempo rhythm is put to a more interesting effect on “Moving Notes”, as it provides a nice counter-point to Fooks’ soul-singer vibes on the number.
Those soul-singer vibes come out on more than a few other tracks on Love Is. While the following “These Ghosts” is bigger and a little overreaching, the soul-singer/indietronica approach of “The Bird’s Song” is touching. However, both the string-heavy “Last Chance for Romance” and the atmospheric “Ships Bound To Sink” can feel like something of a crawl at times.
While that provides a strong basis, in many ways Jane Vain & The Dark Matter are better when they try for something more. “Oh Captain” moves well; a bit of a sea shanty, it also features some great accordion. Finisher “We Must Destroy” employs irony and alt-country to really carry the listener. And single “C’mon Baby Say Bang Bang” takes the slow, soul-singer verse and expertly matches it up with a great catchy-drive chorus beat.
Jane Vain & The Dark Matter previously opened up for Cat Power, and there’s definitely something similar in their wise-but-open voices and attitudes, welcoming to the world, despite all of its flaws. About to start a coast-to-coast tour of their native Canada, look for the smoke, and you’ll find the love.
MP3 Stream: "C'mon Baby Say Bang Bang"
– Tom Balfour
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