BANDS:

Punk & Ska
80's New Wave/
Post-Punk/
College Bands
90's & Beyond
Virginia, North
Carolina, & DC

 Ask Nora: Circling As Warmth 

You know the saying dont judge a book by its cover? Thats the feeling I got during the first minute of this CD. The label on the promo CD-R was a pretty sky blue color, and the writing in the bio made me think this was going to be some pretentious overblown new age-y sort of disc. Imagine my surprise when the first thing I heard was plaintive acoustic guitar and understated vocals!

Ask Nora is the name Jeffrey Mettlewsky uses to present his music, and the disc is basically a solo affair. Using his guitar and vocals as the focus of the songs, he adds other instruments to the songs to give the songs color. His singing is strong, and he often goes from a whisper to a growl to a falsetto over the course of one song. The easiest comparison I can make is to Marl Kozelek (of the Red House Painters, pretty much another solo artist as band musician), although I can also hear shades of Jeff Buckley and even a little Kurt Cobain in Mettlewskys vocals (especially on the song Are You Wormwood?). In addition to being an excellent guitar player, he also uses keyboards to great effect on many of the songs. Drums and percussion are sprinkled throughout the ten tracks, but the songs never seem cluttered or over-worked. As far as the production goes, this CD is top-notch. The vocals are loud and up front in the mix, and theres never a case of instruments dropping out or overtaking the rest of the song; this is a very professional sounding album.

I suppose it might appear that Im just gushing, but I really was pleasantly surprise with how much I enjoyed this record. I highly recommend picking up a copy if youre a fan of any of the other artists mentioned above or if you like well-played quirky acoustic-based music.

This album can be purchased at CDBaby and the Ask Nora Official Website 

LEFT OFF THE DIAL's Ask Nora page

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