Rating: NNN
French chanteuse Keren Ann’s (née Keren Ann Zeidler) first English-language release is an album that commands you to shut up and pay attention. Not Going Anywhere is stark, wintry and devastatingly quiet, with the gamine crooner’s hauntingly deadpan vocals floating airily atop a lily pond of subtle acoustic guitar picking, melancholy strings and occasional appearances by a vaguely creepy children’s choir. It’s a bit one-note, and while songs like Polly and the murder ballad Sailor & Widow have a nice macabre fairy-tale quality, Zeidler’s writing lacks the kind of Nick Drakeish emotional subtext that such delicate arrangements need to pack a real wallop. Still, when her peculiar vocal restraint (think old-school Gallic babes like Birkin and Hardy) and lyrical subtlety click, the results can be quite lovely. Keren Ann works her magic at the Drake tonight (Thursday, December 2).
