I really ought to have posted about today’s band a few months ago, when it was still a dance between the hot end-of-summer days and the cool autumn evenings. As it stands, the chill of late November and the dirty remnants of the year’s first snow hardly seem a fair accompaniment to one of the freshest records of the year.
Still, beauty usually manages to shine through, and there’s more than enough here to go around. Let’s Go Sailing is the solo endeavor of Shana Levy formerly of Irving, and the album is called Chaos in Order. It’s replete with gorgeous melodies and simple yet profound musings on life and love.
I can’t help but use words like pretty and sweet to describe this record, but it would be a shame to leave it at that. There is far more weight here than you might expect on first listen. These are love songs full of nervous tension and sensitive empathy, the sort of music that lives in the place just between wakefulness and a dream.
In short, it’s twee in all of the best senses: a bleak worldview supplemented by jangly guitars and vocals so delicate you can barely feel them as they brush past.
Sideways – Let’s Go Sailing