Brooklyn’s Ivana XL has a voice that’s made for an iPod on an overcast day. Part whiskey-soaked kiss-off, part hushed back-room confessional, this girl may only have her guitar to keep her musically company but her razor-sharp barbed lyrics, drawn out slowly, pointedly, poignantly, makes her music sound powerfully free of adornment.
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Take, for instance, “Black Eye”, from her first EP. When, over the course of a few minutes, she strings out the line
I dyed my hair black
like the girl you first loved
now you’re gonna love me, too
and love me just as much
it feels like a velvety suckerpunch, and sounds like a drunken Cat Power finally being honest with herself for the first time. There’s a gentle, gradual unhinging in Ivana’s delivery that’s endearing, and it’s what makes her compelling and borderline addictive. This is acoustic singer/songwriter slow-core, and with just her voice and guitar Ivana matches both the heartbreak and the slow, gradual claustrophobia of, for instance, Low. The difference? Low will murder you in your sleep-Ivana’s going to spit daggers until you bleed to death.
Check Ivana’s Myspace for more. There’s really nothing else I can say other than: listen.
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