Halie Loren: Cascade Effect

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Photo: Sally Yaich
What would make a girl who was on track to becoming a Nashville chanteuse, suddenly move to Oregon and compose an album of piano-based Indie Pop? Besides the fact that our music is way better than Country, I mean? (Just kidding...but not really.)

I don't know; but I would like to thank Halie Loren for making that fateful decision, for it has given us Full Circle, her inspired new album.

What I was referring to in that snarky opening paragraph was the fact that Ms Loren moved from Cascade Range country to Nashville at the age of seventeen, and dug herself into the music industry, writing songs and gaining experience. After two years in The Volunteer State, she decided to return to Oregon to attend college, and it was at about that time that she "rediscovered" the piano, and began composing the aptly-titled Full Circle.

The result is at times familiar-sounding: Ms Loren's Myspace descriptor is "Just another chick with a piano", and indeed she often wears her Tori Amos-love on her sleeve. But if the influence is legitimate, then who really cares if it's obvious? What's interesting is not how similar she can sound to Tori Amos or Paula Cole, but how different as well. Considering that this is essentially Halie Loren's debut release, it's clear that there is unlimited room for her music to grow and evolve. Besides, in the case of Full Circle, I feel that arguing about the merits of the music or vocal performance may only serve to distract people from the album's most outstanding artistic accomplishment: The lyrics.

There are twelve tracks on Full Circle (including one Joni Mitchell cover), and they all have two things in common: Ms Loren's moody piano, and some sharp lyrics. The song "Alone" is probably my favorite track, lyrically, on the album. It depicts the quiet devastation experienced by a young woman as a result of a failed relationship. In other words, it's a breakup song -- a genre that every songwriter in history has taken a swing at; so if Halie Loren can succeed in putting you right there in the moment, and make you feel the dread for yourself, then she must indeed have talent. Here's the first verse from "Alone" (I wish they'd help a brotha out and put line-breaks on the lyric sheet...but really, I'm just happy there IS a lyric sheet):

Lying awake on my own again I can finally steal the entire bed, yet I curl into this ball of flesh protected from the chill tht starts inside my bones & spreads to parts of me that I'd forgotten could feel the pain of cold, but they'll numb themselves soon enough or so I'm told...

Thematically, the title track is a sequel of sorts to "Alone", which I found interesting. "Full Circle" finds our protagonist turning the tables on her ex, and although she admits, It feels good to hurt you, feels good to turn it all around on you, the rhetoric escalates until you realize that she has crossed the border into emotionally-unhealthy-land. The song gives you a sense of how two people can become locked in a death-spiral of bitterness, before either of them even realizes what's happening.

The opening track, "Maybe I'll Fly", covers similar ground, but has an optimistic bent to it. It's not about the bad experience, so much as it is about the protagonist's self-realization that she might be able to stand on her own two feet for a change. "Sand", which is musically one of my favorite tracks, is another song about regret, but it takes a more abstract point of view.

"Kitty" is the Mean Girls of the album, a song about a callous, catty girl who doesn't care who she hurts on her climb to what she thinks is the top. On the opposite end of the female spectrum is "Sisters", a beautiful ode to siblings and the relationship that has allowed them to be stronger together than they would have been individually.

And then there is "Numb", a political song that scores with subtlety instead of heavy-handedness. Ms Loren obviously shares my sense of disbelief at what our fellow citizens are willing to accept, and furthermore, what they're willing to ignore. This song is proof of Ms Loren's versatility, and therefore of her bright future as a songwriter -- that is, if the FCC doesn't outlaw artistic expression. Because as the song says: Get it out of your head, just close your eyes and be led, the Age of Reason is dead.

Obviously, this artist has been able to use her powers for good, to channel her pain into works of art, in the tradition of countless artists before her. But Halie Loren knows what she has, and she is grateful for it, as evidenced in the eloquent closing track, "Lucky": Lucky, this is a lucky life, I see it more and more how Lucky is a relative state of mind...

Arrangements throughout the album are spare, and although it's usually effective in context, the bare-bones album production may be my only point of contention. I think that Halie Loren's songwriting could sustain a slightly bigger or deeper-sounding production without losing any artistic integrity. Another thing I look forward to is more piano "leads" from Ms Loren; at this point, she is mostly content to play rhythm parts. Perhaps these are things we'll hear on a future Halie Loren album.

For there isn't much doubt that there WILL be another Halie Loren album, and based on her debut, she has a great chance at gaining a devoted audience. Once you've listened to Full Circle, you may very well become one of that audience's early members.