Simple Machines Records | Danielle Howle reviews

Danielle Howle Reviews

DANIELLE HOWLE
About To Burst
From the pages of the CMJ New Music Report, Issue: 486 - Aug 12, 1996

Danielle Howle is a straight-up singer-songwriter - no hook, no gimmicks, no salient details. The only things she's got to get over on are her songs and her voice. Fortunately, both are totally solid on her debut studio album (it was preceded by the amusing live solo disc, Live At McKissick Museum). Howle's songs are smartly observant, veering from universals ("Feel So Bad For You," where she stares at some trees to distract herself from a pointless fight she's overhearing) to odd little specifics (the "tiny octopi-tentacled arms" of "Lonely Is A Word"). And her singing, especially, is a small marvel, warm and wry, distinctive but unaffected, making every line sound like a bit of conversation that just happens to be sung. Even when the lyrics approach singer-so ngwriterly poetic excess ("Soft White China Patterns On His Teeth"), Howle's delivery makes them plain and relaxed. Her voice is gorgeously musical on its own, though - see the a cappella "All." On the rest of the album, she's backed mostly by the workmanlike Tantrums, although a few indie-pop luminaries drop in. Put the needle to the above, plus "Threatened," "Red Candles" and "Down," the band's one excursion into fullout rock.
-DOUGLAS WOLK