Erin Lang: Erin Lang
99X/10

Montreal-born chanteuse Erin Lang presents six delicate 'electromantic' songs on this preview to her Choose Your Own Adventure album. First the bad news: the emotive potential of Lang's breathy, at times little-girl hush is diminished by an unvarying delivery (though multi-tracking it as she does in “Lightning” helps compensates for that lack). The good news?: the strongest aspect of her music isn't the vocalizing but the songs themselves (Lang composes the material while Roger O'Donnell handles arrangements). Teeming with slide guitars, electric pianos, and bright keyboards, the material works such an entrancing magic one must consciously redirect one's focus from their silken sound to focus on the lyrical content.

Of the four originals (not including the two remixes), “Til Then” best showcases the pair's strengths. Lang's soft voice is couched in a dreamy bed of electronic beats and sparkling keys with the memorable hook of a cascading flute-like motif resonating throughout. “You're Coming Home” also impresses as it alternates between downtempo verses and rapturous choruses. In his remix, Ecce (Londoner Nick Lisher) ups the electronic ante by enveloping Lang's winsome voice in “Happy To See You” with dense shudders and streams of static ripples before animating it dramatically with driving beats. The 'Vincenzos Tango Mix' of “Lightning” is strong, too, as it casts the original in a new light, specifically an infectiously danceable one. All things considered, the sampler offers a promising foretaste of Lang's upcoming full-length.

November 2005