Cinema Hearts
Your Ideal
Every year one lucky lady gets the title of Miss America, and 49 very talented women retreat into obscurity. Caroline Weinroth (Cinema Hearts) was one of those who almost made it, and when she didn’t reach the apex of the mountain, she decided to make a song cycle about the process. Without a label’s support, she put together Your Ideal, a nifty little EP that landed in my inbox. Clearly, Weinroth excelled in the pageant’s talent department, and this project reveals a solid vocalist and entertainer not afraid to experiment with the electronics of today’s soundscape. Yes, there are just five tunes here, but they all leap out and surprise us with digital multi-tracking and reverb making a very distinctive sound.
Your Ideal is a tight little EP with each track worthy of note. “Mirror” takes a slow-walking tune and plasters it with reverb and sorrow as Weinroth prostrates herself for someone else. She does what’s asked and receives nothing in return. It’s as sorrowful as you can make a waltz. Next up is title track, “Your Ideal.” Here our singer attempts to look as good as those made-up beauty queens: gorgeous from the right angle, but in back it’s all tears and runny mascara dripping off a model created by a dream industry. The tears and false fronts continue with the Beach Boys flavored “Every Day is a Day Without You.”
There is more, but her musical laments are ripping this crusty old record critic’s heart apart. Ms. Weinroth’s strength of voice fuses with the weakness of a classically bred wife material character struggling to escape her destiny in society.
I’ll just slink away now, as quietly as possible.
