Belladonna
Label: Anti-
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Belladonna
Influential producer to Robbie Robertson, U2 and Bob Dylan, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Lanois’ own recordings traipse a muggy, sometimes morbid riverbed somewhere between Nashville skyline serenity and ghostly cemetery sonics. Belladonna, Lanois’ sixth release, is more stained-glass lovely than previous recordings yet still retains his love of spectral, twilight moods. With their emotionally charged atmospheres, these 13 instrumental vignettes almost sound like unfinished home demos, or lost tapes found in a musty suitcase. Not that there is anything incomplete about them, but the songs are so intimate and real, you can practically hear Lanois’ forlorn soul stuck in the grooves. Lanois crafts memorable, still moments in each halo-surrounded track, from the Brian Eno ambience of “Todos Santos” and the steel guitar-filled chasms of “Frozen” (which is anything but) to the player piano loops of “Sketches” and the sci-fi chorus of “Oaxaca.” Beautiful.
This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2005.