Mojo magazine once memorably described Josephine Foster’s voice as like Dock Boggs going on a date with a less confrontational Diamanda Galas.” Albums like ‘All The Leaves Are Gone” (2004) with her band The Supposed and the solo ‘Hazel Eyes’(2005) served as templates for the female strand of the New Weird America matched perhaps only by the freakiness of Joanna Newsom. These were voices that could divide a room between the lovers and the haters. Foster’s beautiful strangeness – part operatic, part old timey country – earned her respect from a new generation of artists who genuflected before box sets of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.
Those early records combined the spirit, if not the form, of traditional acoustic ballads with a more rocked out electric psychedelia. The albums that followed have been equally individual and there’s always the feeling that Foster is following her heart rather than paying attention to trends.
The psych-folk strands remain on ‘Godmother’ but the album marks a subtle evolution in her sound. Here she has tapped into a more devotional mood and it marks the first time she has experimented with the use of synthesizers. Recorded, written and arranged solely by Foster at home in the mountains of Colorado, the songs are personal to the point that almost feels as if we are eavesdropping on private moments or disturbing solitary prayers.
It is spiritual without defining the precise nature of the higher being Foster is worshipping. She notes: “You may notice me travelling a bit further sonically from our precious earth, aspiring to rise into broader astral perspective, to contemplate the light and origins of it all, as I do believe there is a grand source that is the sum of it all, us all.” Indeed, the final track (of nine) is entitled The Sum of Us All
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The wavering vulnerability voice compliments the swirling arrangements with words that are often enigmatically expressive. On Guardian Angel, for instance, she sings ”I was decadent, indefinite/ So diffident and hesitant” as though berating herself for weaknesses. The contemplative mood is, however, more redemptive than confessional. She seems at ease with who she is despite questing for greater certainties.
The album begins with a deceptively simple acoustic ballad Hum Menina which morphs into a hymnal refrain. The airy Sparks Fly ends with the line “we are getting close” (to what exactly?).
The centrepiece is Dali Rama where is a kind of redefined Hari Krishna chant revolves around the repetition of the line “I found a way” while an acoustic guitar strums along to the synth textures.
The punning of the title Nun of the Above illustrates that Foster is not taking herself too seriously. There is lightness and dreaminess simmering beneath all the tracks to ensure that the personal never overwhelms the universal vision.
Bandcamp link for Godmother
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