Cake Bake Betty

Lindsay of Cake Bake Betty is simply amazing. I discovered this thanks to Infinity Cat records, in my good graces thanks to their promotion of be your own PET.
She makes the piano and guitar wail and shiver, via her Cake Bake Betty persona. Her latest CD, [Songs About Teeth], has been played literally dozens of times since I received it a few days ago, and strikes a pose somewhere between Evanescence, Rasputina and Joanna Newsom, with lots of blood and bones for good measure. It sounds like an small orchestra in a snow storm, solemn and shivering, yet shooting sparks from the musical outbursts.
Some songs like [Song of the Sea] evoke the 10,000 Maniacs (which is a good thing, since I adore Nathalie Merchant) with yearning strings and her pleasantly sad voice. Others are quirky and dangerous, like [64 White Little Things], which concerns cannibalism, bones and babies, among other things, with harpsichord-like sounds that truly can be listened to hundreds of times in a row. [One By One] comes somewhere in between, with dozens of great vocal and piano moments compressed into three minutes.

[The Charge (Knocturnul)] deserves its own paragraph, with comparatively complex piano work enveloping her lament for almost 8 transcendent minutes - so sad, yet still shining like the sun after the deluge. You have to have a taste for folky-classical to truly appreciate where she's coming from, but if so, then this is the appropriate point to bow down.

I would argue that every song has something grand to offer, with perhaps only [Bears] being slightly out of place, due to various OOIOO-like cacophonies during its excessive length. Not that it's not nice in its own right, but it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the album.
So, if you like exquisite corpses, in the literal and historical sense, along with singular visions enhanced by complex simplicity, then Cake Bake Betty is exactly for you. Offering solo explorations of the heart and knife-wielding hand, Lindsay knocks me out cold, yet my brain still dreams of sand trails and entrails. Listen to the snippets that won me over here (MP3), and hit the Infinity Cat store ASAP - the record doesn't really go on sale until January, but if you order now, it will come soon after. - http://www.junkmagnet.com/junklog0510.html :

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Cake Bake Betty (Infinity Cats)

Songs About Teeth

You'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to find an album of more alluring songs based around unusual themes than "Songs About Teeth". The musical vehicle of multi-instrumental New Jersey songwriter Lindsay Powell, Cake Bake Betty's album is an exercise in both the beautiful and the bizarre. Inspired predominantly by old mariner songs, folk classics and blues standards amongst many other influences, the tracks have an off-kilter appeal and energy which most artists would struggle to replicate.

As promised in the title, the record does indeed contain songs about teeth, as well as tackling issues of cannibalism, robots and pirates and comes from the lyrical left-field in a unique and sometimes disturbing way. The songs themselves are fragile, ethereal piano-led ballads and the
record also utilises mournful strings and electronic flourishes, transporting the listener to strange new worlds with a lullaby-esque appeal.

From start to finish, the album takes the listener on a journey through bleak and unnerving songs infused with Lindsay's powerful, aching vocals through to more upbeat, electronic surrealist pop ("Backbones") and modern sea shanty's ("Song of the Sea") before bringing the listener back to more traditional lovelorn offerings such as "Doves". Special mention might be made of eight-minute epic "The Charge (Knockturnul)" This song is a story in itself, progressing from a pacy piano assault to the achingly delicate post-rock inspired midsection, through to its final climax of strings, plaintiff vocals and martial style drumming.

Cake Bake Betty may be inviting us to visit unusual new realms, but it is a trip well worth taking.

Words: Layne Lomax - SUPERSWEET Magazine