CD Review

More renowned for putting out glitchy lap-pop like Daedalus and Dntel (Jimmy Tamborello of the Postal Service), Los Angeles-based Plug Research has somewhat paradoxically taken a chance with a far more conventional album, Mia Doi Todd’s Manzanita. Although Todd has flirted with the contemporary sound of her labelmates, notably in a series of inspired collaborations with Dntel and Adventure Time, among others, her solo work is solidly grounded in folksy American soil, and this, her fifth album, is no exception.

The music, however, seems to take a backseat after the ominous bass approach of opener “The Way” (which sounds like a cover of Disintegration-era Cure); the rocksteady exuberance of “Casa Nova” is really the only stylistic surprise on an album of mostly sparse arrangements. It is Todd’s voice instead that ultimately carries the album: a husky, singular tone reminiscent of legendary Velvet Underground collaborator Nico, whom she openly acknowledges as an inspiration.

Her lyrics, however, are a far less exciting story. Middle-school couplets like “We sit in the grass and we talk of our pasts” abound, as do vaguely political gestures like “we’re dropping bombs we’ve made by guzzling gasoline.” She’s been accused of pretension before, but in many of these songs it seems as though Todd (an unrepentant Yalie) has erred too far in the opposite direction, exuding a conscious primitivism that keeps her dulcet melodies from transcending their stifled semantics.

But even given the album’s often trite enviro-spiritual themes and archaic aesthetic, Enya comparisons would be both unflattering and unfair. Unlike the infamous neo-pagan Yoga soundtrack artist-cum-New Age diva, there is nary a hint of affectation in Todd’s idiosyncratic alto.

Thankfully, the melodies of some of the better songs (“La Lune” and “Muscle, Bone and Blood” in particular), the soaring musical heights of “The Last Night of Winter” (with its Belle and Sebastian horns and gorgeous climax) and the Smiths-like “Deep at Sea” propel Todd’s words into a space where they become more than scattered poetry.

Manzanita‘s ten songs Todd proves that form can indeed triumph over function, at least when it comes to female singer-songwriters. Todd has a solid album here; with better lyrics and more cross-pollination from her Plug Research peers she could eventually have a classic to her name.