Dear Nora
Mountain Rock
Magic Marker
As its title suggests, Mountain Rock is an earthy affair, much more so than the twee-pop context I’d always envisioned Dear Nora occupying. The living-room, four-tracked feel of the minimal, grainy instruments –usually a single acoustic guitar – and Katy Davidson’s tossed off, yet genuine whisper retain the roots of twee, but reinvent them as sweetly naïve folk. With very few songs actually breaking the two-minute mark, brevity ends up stalling the notions of the concept album Davidson might have had. That said, the melancholic “The Lonesome Border, Pt. 1” and “Hung Up,” the wistful title track and the pleading “Suicide Song” all strut lazily through their brief existences, still blooming to their brightest hue. It might be a short hike, but Mountain Rock is certainly worth the trip.
Magic Marker: http://www.magicmarkerrecords.com
