Internal Radio, the third
Eerie Wanda album, is something of a departure for the project. No longer a band as such, this time singer/songwriter
Marina Tadic takes full control and steps away from the sparse, sweet, and nearly twee sound of the past in favor of something darker and moodier. Working with
Adam Harding, her partner in the grunge revival band
Kidbug, and legendary producer
Kramer,
Tadic sought to write songs that plumbed the depth of her feelings instead of writing lyrics that were more observational. She also worked to make every song stand alone sonically, sharing a core of
Twin Peaks-ian grandeur, but taking care to give each one a special arrangement that matched the themes of the words. All her attention to detail and heavy emotional lifting results in a record that is painfully pretty, well-constructed, and honest to the core. It's clear from the opening "Sail to the Silver Sun" -- a darkly repetitive, piano-led ballad that features
Tadic's vocal harmonies swirling like a spooky lullaby paired with chunky power chords -- that they were looking to stretch the parameters of
Eerie Wanda, and they do a fair amount of that throughout. "NOWx1000" adds synth washes, "On Heaven" turns the 1950s influence of earlier records inside out like it's being reflected in a funhouse mirror, "Birds Aren't Real" features swarms of hovering, echoing guitars that flicker and swoop in shoegaze-meets-dub fashion, and "Bon Voyage" ends the record with warped and overlapping guitar loops. Most of the rest of the album drifts on a soft cloud of gently struck pianos, clouds of reverb, and
Tadic's hummingbird-light vocals. "Sister Take My Hand" is the best of the lot, featuring her otherworldly harmonies twined over a steady heartbeat-like drumbeat and far-off synths. If this were an audition to be included on a future
This Mortal Coil album, she no doubt would be getting the call soon. It's not all murky melancholy, though; a couple songs have some of the lightness of previous albums. The almost bouncy "Long Time" sounds like a
Paris Sisters single, only with the sisters replaced by ghosts, and "Puzzled" is a nice moment of spare crackle and pop that would have been the saddest song on
Pet Town. It's nice when an artist can match their lofty ambitions with sterling results, and
Tadic does that and more on
Internal Radio. The first two
Eerie Wanda records were delightful diversions that were nice in the way that looking at photos of mid-modern architecture or old cars is: nostalgic and sweet. With this album, there is some real emotional foundation beneath the retro sounds, songs that will stop one in their tracks, and overall, a sense that one has wandered into a place that's familiar, but strange and worthy of investigation. ~ Tim Sendra