Eleven

Album Review

The magic of Deb Pasternak's music on the not coincidentally titled package Eleven is that you can hear all sorts of influences and fragments of other female vocalists, but you can't quite put your finger on who she is emulating, while the songs are unique, expressive, and breathtaking. To underestimate Pasternak and think she is a folky would be mistake number one; this adventure has bursts of rock and blues, as on "Jack," with Tom West's essential B-3 organ supplementing producer Chris Rival's tremendous guitar. There are subdued Black Sabbath riffs on this song about a suicide leap, something that plagued college campuses in the Boston area circa 2000. Mistake number two would be not to listen to the lyrics. This woman has a way with words that is extraordinary, and Rival's sterling production brings those words out nicely. Moving from "Jack"'s suicide to giving her heart at "The Bullfights" while "those beasts ran below" is a wonderful contradiction. "Flood," a song that appears on the Wildfire compilation as well, is the material Pasternak is most often affiliated with: light folk-rock with compelling lyrics. With its subject being her ex-lover's new love, "Flood" expresses the liberating pathos of a soul being introspective and renewed. "Eclipse" ends the album with just West on piano and Pasternak considering a relationship's demise. It is a touching conclusion to an album that begins with the predatory sounds of "One Regret," a song that sneaks up from behind to grab — and empower — the listener with its thoughts that "guilt's just a waste of time." The music sounds like 'Til Tuesday meets that "All I Want to Do Is Have Some Fun" song, successfully merging '80s and '90s pop in a mix that is very contemporary. "Willomena" — illustrating the price of arrogance — will really play with your head. "Reading the Signs" is the stuff Laura Day preaches in her intuition books; the band smartly gets behind Pasternak, never getting in the way of the hooks and her strong voice. "Keep On" is a nice break and works as a bridge between moods, but "Bitter" is beautiful in its vocal, lyrics, and performance. Rival adds spooky guitars to the seductive vocal, and Pasternak masters a formula early-'70s Boston singer Jack Daniel Ahearn was building: music that is totally "happy/sad." Pasternak brings the joy and the pain together like a cake mix, and feeds it to you. The Andras Jones title "Message From the Moon" is sexual and full of expectation. It, along with "Bitter," are high points on a wonderfully excellent recording that enlightens and entertains. Very impressive.