For a girl of such tender years – being all of 20 in fact – Samantha Crain boasts a surprisingly old-fashioned approach. Her five-song EP, tellingly-titled The Confiscation, sounds like it was recorded in an antebellum parlor, with everyone sitting in a circle and playing into a single microphone. The ambiance is casually nonchalant and sometimes slightly askew, complementing Crain’s unfettered vocals, which bring to mind an unlikely middle ground between Bjork’s cacophony and Marianne Faithful’s raspy resolve. Still, the most unusual element in Crain’s musical mix is its set-up. Billing her disc as “a musical novella,” she takes a literary approach with the various tracks, referring to them as chapters rather than songs. This befits the material’s darker rumblings and further adds to the intrigue. The mood is mostly melancholic, reflective of titles like “Beloved, We Have Expired” and “In Smithereens, The Search For Affinity,” two numbers where ache and mourning seem to hold sway. (Ramseur Records)
