Krista Detor – Cover Their Eyes
Krista’s previous album ‘Mudshow’ was a quiet, low key release but one that has slowly but surely picked up excellent press and won over new fans over the past 18 months or so as the word got round as to how good an album it is. ‘Cover Their Eyes’ is obviously going to create more of an impact on release, and will undoubtedly end up in many ‘best of’ lists come the end of 2007, as it takes the strong points of the previous album and delivers a consistent set of 12 songs.
Beautifully constructed and produced, ‘Cover Their Eyes’ has all the hallmarks of an album that has had time and attention spent on it, this is especially noticeable in the arrangements which are fully realised with a fine cast of musicians on a variety of instruments; the quality and diversity offered here is exceptional.
While the instrumentation is superb, like it’s predecessor, the most striking aspect of the disc is Krista’s vocals – she falls somewhere between Dar Williams and Aimee Mann in sound, but that’s only half the story as the smoothness and effortless delivery makes her stand out from almost all her contemporaries, and she’s as equally at home with the quieter songs as she is the more upbeat numbers.
Even with the superb arrangements and her exceptional vocals the album could all fall down if the songs don’t come up to scratch, but it’s here that she plays her strongest hand. As on ‘Mudshow’ the songs her are glimpses into lives, she paints pictures of people, places and moments in time with fantastic clarity as well as a good deal of style.
‘Cover Their Eyes’ is a mature, thoughtful and rewarding disc, it has the melodies and immediacy to grab a listener’s attention from the off, but the real charms are to be gained from repeated listens where everything comes together to reveal an album with real depth and quality at every turn. One of the discs of the year, and very highly recommended.
