While the blues had always been a presence in
Galas' work,
The Singer was the first time she presented them on their own and she did so in a stark manner, with only herself on voice and keyboards. Her piano playing is fairly harsh and jagged, almost evoking a reined-in
Cecil Taylor. But it's her vocal work that fans are interested in, and here she strikes an often awkward balance between her natural bent toward extreme stylings and the more conservative forms that the material tends to require. On several of the pieces with little in the way of melodic hooks, she speak-sings through, adding typically ornate embellishments that do little to enhance the earthiness of the matter at hand. She succeeds more often when the song has an inherently captivating theme, as on "Gloomy Sunday," where Galas' sense of drama and pathos works wonderfully. The highlight, though, is her reworking of "Let My People Go" into a thoroughly chilling hymn to the victims of AIDS.
The Singer is one of the more accessible entry points into
Diamanda Galas' world, if a slightly confining one that only hints at her greater gifts. ~ Brian Olewnick