Adalita - Adalita

Thu 24th Mar, 2011 in Music Reviews

The eponymous debut solo record from Magic Dirt’s Adalita Srsen is a work of raw beauty, captivating in its vulnerability and upfront with its emotion. Despair and tension run through the record and truly capture the feelings of its creator, as she endured perhaps the most difficult time of her career, suffering the loss of her best friend and band bassist, Dean Turner, to a rare form of soft tissue cancer in 2009 aged 37.

Adalita was born from Srsen’s desire to release a personal and affecting record that reflected her songwriting at its most stripped down and raw. Encouraged by Turner himself to release a solo record, Srsen recorded early takes with him in June 2009, just weeks before his death. Housebound, he was only able to demo whilst sitting in his room, a sombre environment responsible for much of the record’s feel. The pair discussed the record closely before Turner’s passing, a particularly heartbreaking time for Srsen, who says they ‘were a creative perfect match and also each others’ closest, most trusted friend. I looked to him for pretty much everything’.

The record opens with the sparse Hot Air, driven by a hypnotic, two chord guitar progression and simple lead guitar lines, creating a sense of unrelenting tension punctuated further by the lyrics ‘I turn from side to side/And wonder when I’ll get to sleep/I start to feel uncomfortable/You’re a gift with no release’. The track threatens to become a monolithic power ballad at around the three minute mark, before a long guitar excursion towards the track’s finish, the tension being held perfectly with the drums never arriving.

The lyrics are such an important aspect of Adalita – the first thing striking the listener is the complete absence of drums on almost all the tracks, bringing the vocals front and centre and creating a sense of depth and austerity. This is the case for Perfection, where a melancholic guitar progression paves the way for a gripping, confessional tale from Srsen (‘Oh a fantasy/Makes its own light/I sink into it/Night after night after night’, ‘Oh you’re closed for the season/All snowed in/But I need power and reason/Some recognition for keeping my feet on the ground’). Towards the end of the track a string section comes in, along with a backing vocal line, perfectly straddling the boundary between lush and minimal.

The Repairer begins with stark guitar plucking reminiscent of an ancient murder ballad, while Srsen sings in a dark timbre ‘I am the grim repairer/I come to your door/I’ve arrange to pull out your pins/I’m your man to end all things’. The sprawling seven minute epic Jewel Thief serves effectively as the centrepiece of the record, and sees the first appearance of drums, in the form of a primitive and trance-like tribal beat. The chorus of ‘Oh baby you’re so hard to control’ is probably the most accessible of the record.

The dark and ominous ramblings of Invite Me begins with a seemingly stream-of-consciousness recollection of a dream, before another powerful chorus of ‘And I could be there by now/If you’d invite me darlin’. As the title suggests, Good Girl sees Srsen take on the persona of the woman in the right, though lines like ‘I know just when to wait/Yeah I know just when to walk away’ are delivered with more than a touch of irony. The delicious metaphor of ‘Oh look at my halo/It sits at my feet like a beautiful dog’ reveals itself before an uplifting outro featuring backing vocals from Amaya Laucirica.

The haunting instrumental of Lassa Hanta is a work of moody, ambient guitar that sets the scene perfectly for the gloomy, minimalist Fool Around, which sees Srsen deliver the ominous lines ‘I’m here to take you to dance/I’m here to take you away’ with a sense of dark intent lurking behind the delicate exterior. The surging, propulsive tale of revenge Goin Down is one of the record’s most visceral moments, featuring another haunting vocal from Srsen in the form of the chorus ‘Cos I’m goin’ down’. The dark intent of her persona continues, this time wanting revenge (‘There’s a girl and another girl/What a bitch, what a witch/You got a jealous itch that you can’t shift/Who’s gonna pay/It goes way way way back’) before the closure of the track showcases primal, earthy imagery and elements of surrealism through the incantations of ‘I build a nest of sticks/I build my house on bricks/I build a lake of fire’. The unrelentingly dingy and ominous Night Orchid closes the record with twangy, buzzing guitars and haunting, unrecognisable vocals, ending the album on a truly eerie note.

Adalita is a record driven by melodrama and a sense of almost pantomime theatricality, with dark tales of love gone sour, aimless winding journeys searching for solitude, jewel heists, maddened dream recounts and visceral lust. But knowing that the source of influence for the record’s lyrical content makes everything seem all to real. Srsen develops the protagonist or persona of each track with an evocative vividness and emotional richness, her earnest, soulful delivery giving each track an endless sense of depth. This is a powerful, haunting and direct record, and Srsen lets us into her world without reservation. For that we should feel privileged.