Missy Roback

Just Like Breathing

Hear Kitty Records HKR 001

www.hearkittyrecords.com
www.missyroback.com

 

For fans of Aimee Mann, Lynn Miles, Daniel Lanois or Cowboy Twinkies’ Margot Timmins here’s an intimate, dreamy folk-pop album, a perfect cure to help you through a dreary Sunday morning. It’s fragile CD, full of beautiful, reflective lyrics in which Missy Roback (born Archacki) penetrates deep into the broken heart in search of the sharp edges of the breach. Her warm, tasteful songs, though brimful of loveliness, repeatedly have a remarkably venomous lyrical touch pop up. In spite of its fragility the album is forceful at the same time, revealing more of its mysteries every time it is listened to, particularly because of the ingeniously atmospheric production of husband Steven Roback (Rain Parade), who  has decorated the languid, slightly gloomy songs with a drapery of witty sounds and clever vocal and guitar overdubs, of which the closing track Sleeping With The Mermaid is a splendid example. Missy has a frail, warm voice, her emotions are never artificial, and she comes across in a most sincere way. Tracks like Compass and Something Wrong contain a wonderful groove next to the characteristic relaxedness which may in part be the reason why Missy’s refined folk-pop is infused with enough sparkle and spirit to restrain sentimentality.

When the album is listened to as a whole a whiff of monotony settles in and one might start to long for a tad more dynamics, which would have lifted this fine album to staggering heights.