‘Naked Truth’ is the new album from dark, emotional gothic troubadour Autumn Dawn Leader. It is out this Friday, 7th February. Could this be the last release from the Song Mistress? She describes it as “The final album, and the best. This is the magnum opus. This is the legacy. This is the statement of a lifetime and the work of a life“. Personally I hope it isn’t really the end, but in the meantime let me give you my thoughts on ‘Naked Truth’. The album kicks off with “How It Ends” which has a feel of an operatic Siouxse Sioux song with supremely good prog overtones. It is a dark and slow building song and the lyrics are extremely well crafted. Especially the couplet “What began a thought. Is now a beligerent monster.” I have heard many songs about getting old, but none quite as impassioned and brutally honest as “Five Decades”. It was Autumn Dawn Leader turning fifty last year that inspired this track and she said this about it “Life begins at 40′ and other such bullshit that gets said. You’re told that you give less fucks and that you become comfortable and confident in your own skin. Yeah, well, last year saw me turn 50. I’m still waiting. We’re also told that ‘life is short’, and it really, really is NOT.” I agree with much of this, although I do have far less fucks to give now I am 66!
The Songmistress visits her primal force with the magnificent multi-octave epic “Howl” a sound that draws on Kate Bush’s proggiest moments. The emotion is turned up high on this one. At one point in this tune she sings “We howl – and call it music“. Well maybe she does howl but it is a beautiful howl, what a voice! “Howl” is probably my favourite song on this collection. “Up In Smoke” starts with a slow bluesy riff and has a 70s classic rock feel. I know it isn’t about that, but it has made me want to revisit ‘The Mothman Prophecies”. I believe that “The Picayune Dimension” might be the strangest track on the album. Autumn’s deep contralto voice is both mournful and hopeful. The music is full and sometimes choppy. Lyrics like “I take a bus across town to another dimension. I’m not quite sure what I’ve found, nor why I am chosen” add to the sense of strangeness and maybe a vein of foreboding. Picayune, I think, means something of little value or significance. But on listening to this album it is clear that Autumn Dawn Leader has great value and significance. Some songs that talk about sex are often awkward and trite, but “Life Is Unkind (Sex Is Sublime)” is so much more than that. Musically and vocally in places it sounds like a dark Abba from another dimension. It is cinematic in its ambition and needs to be played on the audio equivalent of Imax. Autumn Dawn Leader had this to say about the track, “Unless you are asexual, sex IS a love language and a HEALER. I will die, happily, on this hill. Whether you’re a sex-enthusiast, like me, or not, I hope you’ll enjoy the song. Thanks to all the great artists who added their voices to this sex-positive anthem and made it what it is“.
Chris Conway provides backing vocals and plays magical Theremin on “Slivers & Splinters”. This one made the hairs on the back of my neck rise and tingle. The state of the broken heart is almost palpable. There is a wonderful Latin feel to “I Told The Ravens” and it is probably the happiest track on display here. Autumn apparently loves corvids (a.k.a. the Crow family), especially ravens. I believe that love is very clear on this majestically moving song. The title track, “Naked Truth”, for me speaks of a relationship gone wrong, one that just never worked or a love unrequited. You could slice the exposed emotion on this tune. Have there ever been many songs that openly sing about polyamory? Probably not, but on “Limitless” Autumn Dawn Leader does exactly that. She said this of the song “This is an anthem of Polyamory. Polyamory isn’t about sex; it’s about LOVE. It’s about knowing that you can be in love with more than one person at a time, but instead of hiding it or denying it, you embrace that humans were not meant to be monogamous creatures and there need be no moral wrongness“. The counterpoint vocal from Becky! gives an almost Fleetwood Mac aura. The album closes with the poetic prose and nature sounds of “Splendour”. This could be remixed into an incredible chill out track or maybe even a goth dance anthem. I love this album. If Jim Steinman had ever decided to produce a more considered and less bombastic album than the type he did with Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler and employed Philip Glass and Brian Eno it might have sounded a little like ‘Naked Truth’. If you love great music give this album a try!
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