Priscilla Ahn’s EP provides a comfortable soundtrack for light blue late nights and steamy, sweet drinks. Though the music can come off a bit “coffeehouse fare,” Ahn’s songs are well-crafted, with nice choices of warm instrumentation and layered vocal harmonies. What makes everything shine, though, is Ahn’s singularly pure voice, its amber, honey tones catching the light. There’s something both skillful and natural about the way she sings, like a bird letting the wind lead its flight.
The delicate and sometimes airy nature of her sound by no means signals weakness or insipidness; in fact, the intriguing aspect that rises out of listening to Ahn’s mostly quiet sounds is that she seems rooted in a certain strength of spirit. This vague observation is perhaps why I felt let down by two tracks, the poppy “Are We Different” and wandering “Lost.” The first is undoubtedly catchy, and the lyrics wink at us with “Looks like we’re in for warm weather for the next three billion years,” but the song doesn’t hold in the memory and there’s a generic gloss to her voice. Because there’s a similar lack in “Lost,” which takes its time to build through repetition and textures, I can’t shake off the feeling that this song is meant to be “the sad one” because it’s in a minor key.
The best track on the EP is “Dream,” which goes through the stages of life from young girl to old woman, dusted with lovely images like the child playing pretend and feeding her “houseguests bark and leaves.” Ahn’s pure “oohs” over the cello lines are meltingly gorgeous, while the gentle, steady beat marks the passage of time.
On this small sampler at least, Ahn’s songs work better when there’s something of a narrative’s arc, or clearer imagery, to provide more memorable substance. “I Don’t Think So” is a fun, bouncy take on jealousy and rethinking a relationship that’s accompanied with cheery peals of xylophone bells and folksy harmonica and delivered with a little bite. In “Rain,” Ahn subverts the nursery rhyme into “rain, rain, don’t go away,” and shows us some beautiful sculpting and stretching out of lines, curving them around the meter like wisps of languid steam. This last song evokes the life-on-hold aspect of a rainy day perfectly, with everybody inside their own little pocket of reflection, nostalgia, or meandering thoughts.
|