An absolute masterpiece, an album to be listened for years, again and again. Gold Sahadow of Asaf Avidan is filled with nothing but unadulterated goodness. Album immediately surrounds you upon hearing the opening track, “Over My Head”, with an emotion of driving along an empty road, soft, gentle, comfortable, and easy.
Almost whole album is an emotional spin of a listen. This is one of those albums that quickly goes into you and gets in your head. Each song comes with touchy lyrics. The most immediately arresting element of Avidan is his voice. Feminine and unusually high, Avidan's vocal style is reminiscent of a 1940s torch singer with 21st century pop phrasing. It's certainly distinctive and he knows how to wield it to great effect.
“Ode To My Thalamus” (!) is a calypso-like catchy number (with inflections of those French melodies you’d hear in the ’60’s); “The Jail That Sets You Free” has a gospel feel at the beginning, with its handclaps and moves into a great, danceable ’80’s style track (think Spandau, circa Journeys To Glory). “Gold Shadow” is a piano dirge – a torch song – which is stark, lyrically vivid and haunting; “Let’s Just Call It Fate” is a country/Americana sounding beauty (an absolute highlight) and “Fair Haired Traveller” is the gentle, acoustic finger-picked closer.
There are deep, mournful orchestral ballads like "My Tunnels Are Long and Dark These Days" and the title track, along with creepy blues dirges like "Bang Bang." Still, it's all very stylized and, though entertaining, it's hard to get a read on who Avidanreally is. Tucked away at the end of the record are a pair of intimate solo acoustic songs that are both stunningly honest and at total odds with the album's overall tone. The elegant Leonard Cohen-esque"The Labyrinth Song" and the delicate folk ballad "Fair Haired Traveller" reveal the wonderfully talented songsmith without all of the affectations.
Although openly prepared for US market, Gold Shadow is beyond any boredom albums of American style. Absolutely an album which will be listened for years.
Asaf Avidan | Gold Shadow | Telmevar Records | 2015 *****
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