Broccoli Spears Bad; Ripley Caine Good
Ripley Caine is alive, happy and in pain.
She is bright, observant, introspective, upfront, aloof, friendly, casual, humorous, straightforward, cute, intimate, seemingly certain and a musician and songwriter worthy of your attention. Her music is painful, confrontational, beautiful, catchy, immediate, echoey and sustaining. It evokes Sade's work but it's funkier, maybe more bohemian. It took a couple of days and some research to realize this EP is the sonic art of one Chicago-based woman and not a band. I like that.
While it isn't clear to whom Caine is referring, the echo and melody of "Our Song" is bluesy, exotic and sexy. "Seein' You/Seein' me/Seein' what will have to be" is a portion of the exotic story. Caine's melodies seem to present a map of sadness with light at the end of the tunnel. She seems to be flexible about how long said tunnel is, but determined to find and explore the light at the end. For that and her engaging melodies, she is commended.
Ripley Caine is pretty much available at www.ripleycaine.com