Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.For much of the 1990s, the dominant role for female rockers – especially Americans – was one in which the open wounds of one's emotional life were viewed as ideal material for songs, particularly if (as with Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos) there were a few childhood traumas hanging around, still awaiting "closure". Poe Danielewski is the latest of this dreary line, and Haunted her self-proclaimed "journey towards intimacy", prompted by stumbling across a cache of tape recordings of her late father, fragments of which appear interspersed among its tracks. The Danielewskis clearly believe their lives to be of universal import – the sleeve notes include detailed cross-references to passages in Poe's brother Mark's semi-autobiographical novel House of Leaves. The album opens with Poe singing into her mom's answer-phone to inform her of dad's death, before going on to express how his memory still haunts her every waking moment. She resembles Morissette in so many ways: embarrassingly over-generous with details of her private life in tracks such as "Not a Virgin"; apparently unable to break the link between assertiveness and blame; and fatally bound to a cramped, claustrophobic mode of over-egged AOR rock whose orderly manner merely belies her claims of wildness. It's psychotherapy by sequencer, as rigid and controlling as any 12-step programme, but lacking the essential nobility of troubles borne in solitude.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments