|
press
Clash 2009
*****
“Sweet Heart Rodeo is pure quality; there is a sureness and
maturity in the songwriting, and a lightness and poise in the delivery,
that is utterly beguiling … Effortlessly magnificent.”
8/10
Mojo
2009
*****
“Beautiful.”
Uncut
2009
* * * * *
“Delicately adventurous. Young Girl leans towards a previously
untapped rockist side, while a semi-freaky cover of Margo
Guryan’s Love posits Landes as a muted banshee. She’s on
plainer ground with Money In The Bank and Dance Area, feathery acoustic
songs that shuffle and sway beautifully, though it’s the graceful
cadence of Wandering Eye that steals the show.”
Q
2009
* * * * *
“Her sweet vocals and country-ish musical tilt recall Cat Power,
but with a fresh and affirming, rather than jaded, worldview”
Artrocker
2009
* * * * *
“As close to graceful as anything I’ve heard in a long time
… A gentle canter of mesmerising, summery-tinged tunes which are
gilded with effortless vocals and understated melodies … If
you’ve already got Cerys Matthews’ Cockahoop, you’ll
love it..”
Clash 2009
* * * * *
“Dawn Landes has one of the finest voices in modern Americana
…. Gorgeous country flavoured pop.”
Sunday
Express (Scotland) 2009
* * * * *
“There’s only one thing wrong with this jaunty mix of
country-rock, electronicia and even garage – at just under 33
minutes, there’s not enough of it.”
PASTE
Magazine March 2008
* * * * *
'In pictures, she plays the part of the unassuming pinup girl for the
roots renaissance, but Dawn Landes’ music sits neatly on the
fulcrum between Cat Power and Neko Case. On Fireproof, she layers
guitars, banjos and pedal steel with winsome touches like optigans and
thumb pianos. Moods shift throughout the 12 songs, from starry-eyed to
apathetic, but the standout tracks on Fireproof showcase this singer at
her most bittersweet. Landes writes her best songs from the seat of the
aimless dreamer and paints her surroundings with an inviting haze of
solace. She shuffles, mumbles and muses her way through the finer
points of Fireproof, like the slow-burning
“Twilight,” a future Americana slow-dance standard.
“Another starless night / another dim streetlight / you turn
your head just right / the street becomes the sky.” Emily
Anderson'
UNCUT
Magazine February 2008
* * * * *
‘What a gem this is… Made up from some compelling
constituent parts- odd dream-like songs, thumb piano and gorgeous
boho-folk.’
Q
Magazine February 2008
* * * * *
‘This second solo album is understated and
beautiful… Her greatest strength is simplicity.’
PLAN
B January 2008
* * * * *
‘ Like the little sister of Feist and Jenny Lewis, Dawn
Landes is a cutesy candy- voiced revelation.'
SUNDAY
TIMES 16/12/07
* * * * *
‘Brooding bluestronica from the one-to-watch Kentuckian.'
MUSIC
WEEK 01/12/07
* * * * *
‘There’s an easy way to keep the album market
alive: make good ones. Dawn Landes appears to have the concept down
pat.’
Gay
Times December 2007
‘Bodyguard is bluesily beautiful and a yummy taster from her
new debut album, Fireproof.’
SUNDAY
TIMES 25/11/07
* * * * *
‘A Brooklyn- via – Kentucky debutante weaving
blues-folk spells.'
SHUT
Magazine November 2007
* * * * *
‘Dawn Landes comes across like a female version of Beck and
we predict great things from her.'
BOYZ
22/11/07
* * * * *
‘ If you’re a fan of Cat Power, Beth Orton, Feist
or Suzanne Vega, you’ll love Dawn Landes…Non-
soppy folk.'
The
Guardian 21/09/07
* * * * *
‘Sweet country- flavoured songs seasoned with confidence and
robustness… vivid girl next- door indie pop in the spirit of
Frente and Cat Power’
UNCUT
Sept 2006
* * * * *
A nostalgic mix of junk-shop pop, 10-dollar folk guitars, glistening
glockenspiels and fuzzy, retroelectronica against which she delivers
her odd, boho lyrics - many of which sound as if they've been made up
on the spot - with an offhand insouciance.
ART
ROCKER Aug 2006
* * * * *
Pitching up somewhere alongside Joanna Newsome and Cat Power comes this
beguiling new New York artist, Dawn Landes....With Autumn drawing
nearer, there will be fewer artists you'd rather spend your time with.
THE
WORD Magazine Aug 2006
* * * * *
Who is she? Good question. On the evidence of "Two Three Four",
Kentuckian Dawn Landes appears susceptible to a little musical
schizophrenia. She dabbles with the dark arts of alt country on
"Straight Lines", reinvents herself as a purveyor of lo-fi scuzziness
on the claustrophobic "Suscpicion", before the fleeting "Close your
Eyes" re-clothes her as dewdrop-pure folkie.
Still on the sunny side of 25 and now resident of New York, Landes's
vocals are those of a less bleak Be Good Tanya, while her songs remain
well left of centre, aided by glockenspiel, toy piano, and her favorite
pink accordion...
Welcome Dawn Landes into your life - whoever the hell she is.
VENUS
MAGAZINE OCT 2004
* * * * *
Though many
singer-songwriters are undoubtedly talented, it's not often that one
woman stands out amongst today's litany of guitar-playing songstresses.
Yet, 24-year-old New York transplant Dawn Landes does just that, and
delivers an album of such pretty, delicate, and wistful tracks with
'Dawn's Music' that it's a wonder why the Louisville native is yet
unsigned.
Traversing myriad of moods, from the electric rocknroll of "Scars" to
the delightful instrumental "Traffic" to the forlorn opener "Suspicion"
and grave "Mud & Stars," the songs on 'Dawn's Music' are
diverse in the territory they cover yet still manage to form a
cohesive, unified sound.
Accordions and
vibraphones make charming appearances throughout the record, layered on
booming drums and simple guitar, yet it's Landes' lilting voice and
graceful melodies that hold everything together. At the album's core is
Landes' talent for penning songs that linger in your head, songs that
are cute and enchanting and catchy and just plain lovely (see the
innocent "Kids In the Play").
Though Landes'
songwriting is a definite strength of her music, it is the intimacy and
spontaneity of the record that make 'Dawn's Music' so distinct. Perhaps
it's Dawn's heart-rendering voice or perhaps it's the fact that she
freely talks during a few songs as if she were playing live, but
special care was taken in creating this album (even the packaging, with
a silk-screened album cover and hand-cut linear notes, is personally
made by Dawn herself). It's been awhile since a virtually unknown,
unsigned artist can make such an impression with a debut, but Dawn
Landes has such talent that she shouldn't go unnoticed for much longer.
-Kristina Francisco
SALON.com Aug.
18, 2004
* * * * *
After this weekend's New York Times profile of Regina Spektor, the
smart money is on her to be the next young New York-based female artist
to break out into stardom. But I'd like to put in a vote for Dawn
Landes (and not just because she, unlike Spektor, isn't associated with
the horrid, faux-outsider "antifolk" scene). The 24-year-old Landes
performs regularly at small New York clubs and is building a following,
but she deserves a much larger audience. Her music should appeal to
fans of singer/songwriters like Beth Orton and Suzanne Vega, but
there's also something darker and stranger in it, something that
recalls the near autistic quality of Cat Power's music. All three
tracks posted in the audio section of her Web page are worth
downloading, but "Suspicion" is my favorite of them, and the one in
which the Cat Power similarity is most pronounced, particularly when
Landes double-tracks her voice.
-Thomas Bartlett
VH1/ All
Music Guide
* * * * *
Bridging the
worlds of indie rock, alt-country, and folk, singer/songwriter Dawn
Landes has played with a similarly diverse range of artists, including
Fred Eaglesmith, Amy Rigby, John Gorka, and Rainer Maria. A Louisville,
KY, native, Landes moved to New York to attend N.Y.U. and play music;
she obtained a weekly spot at the Jack Hardy song exchange and also
plays frequent shows in New York as well as on the campuses of Yale,
Sarah Lawrence, Barnard, Columbia, Brown, and, of course, her own
school.
-Heather Phares
New beats
* * * * *
Dawn Landes has a voice that is a cross between Natalie Merchant and
Sinead O'Connor. But her music is unlike the aformentioned two artists.
On this self-released record, her sound is baroque with melodic pop
instincts (the lovely "Kissing Song," as an example); other times it's
spare and minmalist ("Traffic"). From the pop oriented fare like "The
Accordion Song" and "Suspicion" to the pointed "Mud and Stars," Landes
applies a sometimes subdued yet haunting hypnotic effect in her
delivery, accompanied with her free-floating lyrics. It's hard to
classify her music within a specific genre, but perhaps that is exactly
what makes her stand out amongst new comers.
-David Chiu
Comments about
'A Well Dressed Man':
dawn Landes is
one of the younger members of the Songwriter's Exchange. This song
covers one of the most horrifying aspects of the attacks; the
"jumpers", as they were called by the firemen and newspapermen on the
scene. It was adapted from a poem by Frank Tedesso.
- Suzanne Vega
About two years ago, Gary and Dan were working in the studio when they
were interrupted by a very young aspiring engineer who asked if she
could just hang out and watch them work. She soon became an invaluably
helpful fixture at most Hem recording sessions. And that was before we
found out she could sing. Now featured as the harmony vocal on a number
of Eveningland songs, Dawn is a beautiful songwriter in her own right.
Check out her website, and see her live if you get the
chance…
- Hem
|
