Shadows And Dust

Lene's -Shadows And Dust' CD was released September 12 2005, celebrated by her classic return (after many years) performance at Joe's Pub, New York City, the day before. As with her earlier efforts in the early eighties which were launched into near-earth orbit by her impact through Stiff Records, the mainstream media hasn't really noticed yet. While we hold our breath waiting for Rupert Murdoch's personal approval, we appreciate these reviews from the progressive set, on- and off-line. Lene is such a special character and artist that her essence can't be captured in short sound bites. Let others tell the story: Time Out New York The oddest inhabitant of the Stiff Records stable circa 1978, Detroit-born chanteuse Lene Lovich caused a stir with the theatrical pop she crafted with partner Les Chappell, but quickly faded from view. -Shadows And Dust', a new release on veteran producer Mike Thorne's Stereo Society label, reveals Lovich to be as gleefully off-kilter as ever. The album is a brilliantly giddy crush of goofy Goth and rubbery funk; Chappell and Thorne also make it a sonic spectacular. Alt.

Culture Guide (Eric Saeger) A cross between Siouxsie, the Dresden Dolls and the soundtrack to 'Wicked' -- yes, the planet needs much, much more of this. With the '80s revival in full swing, it's time to give this princess of Goth the credit she may have missed out on back in the Stiff Records days: 'Lucky Number' was arguably the transcendent look at schmuck-class love -- it's implication that any dice-roll in the hay can result in finding one's soul-mate makes it almost worth hitting the clubs to this day. Fast-forward to 'Shadows And Dust' and Lene's still the same Siouxsie-like space shot with the same Siouxsie-like dark-chocolate-and-yodel disaffection, but this time she's armed with sequencers, a deepened sense of theater and one or two block-rockin beats. 'Craze' starts things off with a swirl of black silk and back-of-hand-to-forehead seduction that soon escalates into a patented Elvira vs Frankenstein anti-hook. 'Shape-Shifter' sets all phasers to Extra Weird in a largely successful powwow between Destiny's Child and Spike Jones, after which the off-Broadway hysterics of 'Remember' bemoan Lene's romantic misfire du jour. In case it needs to be said, sketched-out Halloween spirits never go wanting for long -Gothica’ and -The Wicked Witch’ are worth their weight in strychnine-flavored candy corn, subordinate only to the bug-eyed Andrew Lloyd Webber-style -The Insect Eater’. in which our gal turns into an earwig-gobbling Renfield before your very ears. Harp Magazine (Richard Riegel) The easy ethnic take on Lene Lovich during the heady days of New Wave was that she was part-Serbian, leading to aged Boris & Natasha routines in media organs like me own -Creem’. Not that Lovich couldn't be a Slav to fashion, as her still-smashing 1979 debut, -Stateless’, predicted the better aspects of the coming decade in it's darkly Danubian dance tracks. But all that Serb's-up jive neglected the fact that Lovich is also half-English in ancestry and has spent most of her life in Britain, where her birded-out vocal mannerisms, her wide-eyed dedication to animal rights and her singular costumes (her odd headgear has only grown more layered over the years, as though her brain is an irritant oyster busily trying to coat with pearl) likely enable her to blend right into her Norfolk neighborhood. It helps to think of Lovich as a classically English eccentric before slipping into -Shadows and Dust’, her first new-material album since 1990's -March’, as the first few tracks, though musically respectable (as always, husband/collaborator Les Chappell and many synthesizers are aboard) have a kind of ponderous, curdled weirdness that speaks of navel-grazing out on the moonlit moors. (Either that, or maybe of Lovich listening to screeching voicemails from her longtime pal Nina Hagen, she of avant-bombast musical renown.) -Shadows and Dust’ starts to pick up kinetic steam about midway through, in -Gothica’ and -Cr