Marilyn Carino – Little Genius

2Aug/110

Marilyn Carino – Little Genius

Don't you hate it when a certain band that you like doesn't do anything for a while, and then, when you're about to give up on them altogether, their (usually female) vocalist comes out with a solo album, and you're like, OK, I'll take that! - only to be bitterly disappointed by this mellow uninspired poppy singer-songwriter dung fest. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, but for every Róisín Murphy there are dozens of [insert any other name of a trip-hop vocalist gone solo]. Now you understand the position I was in approaching the new record Little Genius by Marilyn Carino, whom some of you may know as the vocalist for Mudville. I don't know what exactly the reasoning was behind making a solo record (I'm planning on asking that question in the upcoming Q&A with Marilyn, which I'm really looking forward to). If some of it was to get her name more visible, not shadowed by the title of the group, then I must say - even though Little Genius is full of shadows, none of them hide the talent of Marilyn Carino. This, my friends, is how you do a solo album. You don't just do something different for the sake of doing something different. You do what you do best for the sake of making it sound even better. Despite its chilling downtempo base, Little Genius is anything but mellow. There's so much passion in Marilyn's singing, that it becomes overwhelming in some parts. But the album is also so well structured that instead of hitting your senses randomly and leaving you crushed and confused, it captures you whole and washes you away, providing a complete experience, painting a picture abstract enough to be mysterious yet totally relatable. This image will of course be different for every listener, but I couldn't help picturing the ocean. Not just your generic ambient ocean as in "lots of water". A very particular ocean, ever-changing and alive, going through various stages of demonstrating its power to us mortals. "Time Bomb" - the storm gathers, you can feel it in this pulsating beat and eerily calm vocals (which multiply, echoing and overlapping, just like dark clouds scattered across the sky). And then it starts. "King Of The World" makes its theatrical grand entrance. It's huge. It doesn't crush you - there aren't any elaborate orchestrations or layering of crafty samples. It just makes you feel small by its sophistication. It's perfect. "Monster Heavy" - devastation. There's no escape, this song captures whatever is left of you, the drums are ruthless and echoing vocals (Marilyn uses this element quite tastefully) drag you into the whirlwind of sound. But you already can hear the upcoming calmness in the keyboard parts. And "No Disgrace" brings it, with the beat carrying over some of the nervousness of the storm but the vocals are sunny and instrumentations are soothing. And it continues on, from the wavy cool boat ride of "S'cool" to the dangerous deep waters of "Whisper". From the trip-hop beat of "Special Dark" counterbalanced by psychedelic keyboards and jazzy vocals to the ambient anthem of "Modern Love". And the smooth sailing of "I Will Have Everything" takes us to the new and wonderful beginnings.
Even though I personally would like to hear more instruments accompanying Marilyn Carino's wonderful voice and sometimes the album's intentional borderlessness was throwing me off, Little Genius is an excellent record, brave and powerful, atmospheric and intimate. Preview it here or on Marilyn Carino's website and get it on iTunes.