The Liquor Witch (CD)
Full of medicated and paranoid melancholy, The Liquor Witch was recorded in studios and hotels across the country. Sean Madigan Hoen is a longtime outcast of music subculture, having performed with Thoughts of Ionesco and The Holy fire before stumbling into an elusive "solo" career. The Liquor Witch borders of eclectic but ultimately brings together hallucinatory, effected guitars with an almost neo-folk under tone. Fans of The National, Nick Cave, My Morning Jacket, or even Roy Orbison might find comfort in the strange and darkly beautiful musical yarn here. There is a lot going on, but ultimately Hoen's consistent reaching for the hyper-sincere and transcendent seems noble enough to win over even the most jaded listener. In the end, this is a drearily sensitive, and at times absurd puzzle.
| Lanois D
- New York, NY, USA |
| I got this album in the mail from a friend a while back and haven't wanted to listen to anything else since. I love it! It's moody and dark, sort of like The National meets The Cure, meets Massive Attack... Or something. Each song is pretty different so hard to categorize, but great just the same! | |
| Brandon
- Wyandotte, MI, United States |
| At the end of the day The Liquor Witch is the kind of album you want to have with you; a great companion piece letting you know you're not alone, a reminder that no matter what's behind you or what you're in, there is comfort from the experience, a light in what we make.
The promise of brighter days is felt right from the powerfully simple, dawn-like beginnings of the first track, "We Are Pedestrians" in the lyrics: "No more bad news, I will not subscribe. No more pain, it's our time to try." The track builds into epic guitars, hard-hitting drums, a blaring trumpet, and maniacal laughter, each ebbing and rising in the mix.
The tracks following are primarily slow, mid-tempo arrangements that move in dark atmosphere, yet never fail to shine a glimpse of hope. This is seen in "Makes You lovely" with the line, "All your pain makes you lovely. To feel this feeling, it gives me hope." There is a heavier, loud undercurrent of energy that makes itself known in these songs and at many points threatens to explode. This energy comes closest to spewing over on the affirming "We Two Are" However, to Hoen's credit he never lets it get out of control instead carefully bringing the energy back down, ultimately ensuring the stability and integrity of his album, on top of his own. The power of the mix is accompanied by many buried sounds making themselves more apparent with repeated listens: the background scream at the end of "Dead Cities" for instance, a song where Hoen airs every corner of his mind.
"If You Must Dance," "Heat of the Night" and "Solar Explosions" pick up the tempo, but don't veer from the mood of the album. Call it the manic approach with lyrics like, ''When I'm gone please remember me, bury my ashes in the backyard under a tree. Say no prayers in my name."
The Liquor Witch is written as Hoen's putting behind life in dull, cancerous Detroit for a new stab in Brooklyn, aided by catharsis he finds in Coney Island. While the geographic change lends its way to the album, it's more a manifestation of the desire to create intrapersonal changes: mentally, physically, existentially. As the record progresses the demand for change becomes more imminent on each song, and Hoen shows strength in putting an album together. The opening track sings, "We are pedestrians transitory in our times, walking slowly toward our own light" while the last listed track, "Fear of Change" closes with the beautiful repetition, "To the light I want to run." In the middle of the album after the naked, telling title track "Lift My Eyes" offers a view into the urgency: "I'm doing all I can to reach out beyond the dark. Lift my eyes. Our hell will turn to sun in time." A testament to a self-destructive and addictive personality: traits that pair up with companionship and desire to heal on the masterfully arranged hidden track.
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