(2018) Josephine Foster - Faithful Fairy Harmony    


Review:
The umbrella term freak folk has been applied to many artists over the years with varying degrees of accuracy. In Josephine Foster's case, her music is certainly more esoteric than contemporaries like Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart. Her records have also seen her consistently pegged as an anachronistic artist, but in many respects, her music has never felt timelier. Faithful Fairy Harmony feels like an antidote to an increasing detachment from each other and the world that has its origins in technology. Even when she's not directly focusing on the natural world, an obscure, bucolic veil hangs over these compositions. Similarly, the production feels distinctly non-digital, warm, and trenchantly real. This visceral quality is evident on the levitating vocal and intertwining harmonies of "Benevolent Spring" that capture the delicate splendor of the season to which this song is an ode. The jolly gait of "Force Devine" adds a welcome spot of vivacity and features an engaging guitar solo on an album full of enchanting details, like the disorienting kazoo like interruptions of the closing title track. That said, it is Foster's voice that remains the defining, and truly unique, instrument of her songs. It acts as a conduit to the transporting affect her music has, perhaps nowhere more powerfully than on "I Was Glad." Its quiet grandeur is a remarkable peak in a double album full of enchanting curios. Elsewhere, the wayward melodies of "Lord of Love" tap into the psychedelic character of her music, and in addition, "All Pales Next to You" conjures a wooziness that the intoxicating nature of infatuation elicits. The mysteries of love, life, and the world are broached with a light yet nevertheless unshakeable touch on Faithful Fairy Harmony. Foster has made a record that feels like a psychic connection to inner worlds as well as an outer one, and the visions she summons are at once vivid and rarified. — allmusic


   


Track List:
01 - Soothsayer Song
02 - A Little Song
03 - The Virgin of the Snow
04 - Pearl in Oyster
05 - Benevolent Spring
06 - Force Divine
07 - All Pales Next to You
08 - Lord of Love
09 - Eternity
10 - Indian Burn
11 - The Peak of Paradise
12 - Adieu Color Adieu
13 - Pining Away
14 - Challenger
15 - I Was Glad
16 - Shepherd Moon of Starry Height
17 - Little Lamb
18 - Faithful Fairy Harmony


Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk
Country: Colorado, United States
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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