Posted on: May 30, 2010 Posted by: AAA NeuFutur.com Comments: 0

Transcendent of any musical genre, Jane’s sophomore release begins with “Never Thought It Was Love”, a country meets Sheryl Crow-type of romp, which moves into the much more electronically-infused “Place To Find You”. Instead of overdoing it with the synthesizer lines in the aforementioned track, Jane is able to chart eirself as a more sedate alternative to Madonna. “Place To Find You” is a more sedate, nineties-themed dance track. The electronic tint of “Seedling Jane” continues for the next track, “Show Me Where The Lonely People Go”, a Latin-infused pop ditty. “Daddy” is the rocking-ballad of the track, with Jane achieving the tone of Alannah Miles (Black Velvet), tying twinkling guitar with an electrified (not electronic) guitar. Moving back to the sixties tint that “Place To Find You” worked along with the more current style, “I Wanna Stay Blind” has a more nasal quality and a go-go singer quality to it that mixes well with the ska backbeat.

The mastering of “Seedling Jane” is even more lush and complete than eir’s first album, and a result, each track on the disc is warm, inviting and without any jagged edges to leave listeners cold. One issue about the mastering does remain on “Seedling Jane”, being the relatively background role of the instrumentation on the disc. Jane’s voice is so upfront and in-your-face that most of the guitars and drums are relegated to aural googahs. The noticeable exception to this are the flawless solos of “Daddy”, as well as the instrumental lead-ins to tracks. Individual tracks cannot be removed from the entity that is “Seedling Jane”, and that means that aside from the oft-mentioned “Daddy”, the vast majority of the disc morphs into one amorphous form. This is not to say that the tracks are weak in any way, but rather that there is very little that glitters in the track to catch the attention of the average listener.

The title track ends the disc, and is a very fitting end to the disc. An ethereal chorus of pseudo-voices backs up Jane’ singing, which is cast this time in a way much more similar to Sinead O’Connor than anyone. “Seedling Jane”” is a solid album, but the experience is slightly diminished from the two larger problems of vocal/instrumental levels and lack of aural hooks. The disc is incredibly enjoyable, and “Seedling Jane” is just another trip to the ultimate goal of having a musically compelling and solid album for Jane. I have no doubt that ey will eventually reach that plateau.

Top Tracks: Never Thought It Was Love, Daddy

Rating: 5.9/10

Jane – Seedling Jane / 2004 Self-Released / 10 Tracks / http://www.janemusic.info / Reviewed 05 September 2004

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