Multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano could have been dismissed as another “whisper singer”, but for the fact she can really sing, write and play. She always mines the saddest, most traumatic parts of her soul and turns them into eerie beauty. Dark night of the soul art can often be self-indulgent or mawkish, but Germano deals in real life, albeit through the prism of delicate sounding dark folk.
Her album Geek The Girl was the breakthrough, widely regarded as a masterpiece, occupying a similar territory with confessional singer songwriters like Tori Amos, Jeff Buckley and Kristin Hersh. To say it was harrowing was something of an understatement. It took on insecurity, broken relationships and the use, on her song ‘…A Psychopath ‘, of a woman’s real frantic phone call to 911 before being murdered by her stalker. Germano had been through an abusive relationship and wanted to increase awareness of the issue, so was granted use of the sample, despite its creation giving her “sleepless nights”. It’s deeply disturbing, and not one I’d want to play again.
But Liquid Pig simply did was survivors do- it backed off and retreated into itself even more. It’s exquisite, sweet and yet incredibly sad, a little bit broken and bitter. Pared -back songs are like waltzes made by spectres (‘Candy’, ‘…To Dream’) or the bleakest alt country tunes ever created. Low-key music like hers requires the listener to lean in. Often it seems airborne like the levitating figure on the front cover.
Germano’s murmured or half whispered vocals are the antithesis of reassuring, but self aware enough too. Her self -deprecating sense of humour came through on a track called ‘It’s Party Time’. Elsewhere, her trademark fairytale -infused phantasmagoria only got more lucid.
Lullaby for Liquid Pig
Track listing
“Nobody’s Playing”
“Paper Doll”
“Liquid Pig”
“Pearls”
“Candy”
“Dream Glasses Off”
“From a Shell”
“It’s Party Time”
“All the Pretty Lies”
“Lullaby for Liquid Pig”
“Into the Night”
“….to Dream”
Personnel
Craig Ross, Johnny Marr – guitar
Sebastian Steinberg – bass
Neil Finn – keyboards
Butch Norton, Joey Waronker, Wendy Melvoin – drums
Hit The North 