#75

Carla Bozulich – Evangelista
singer/songwriter, avant-folk
2006

Evangelista kicks off with the lengthy “Evangelista I”, which is simply one of the most gut-wrenching, intense and emotionally powerful songs of the decade. It opens the album with such force and conviction that all the remaining tracks – wonderful as they are, particularly centrepiece “Baby, That’s the Creeps” – can initially feel like something of an afterthought. Bozulich’s brand of gothic folk/country is immediately unique, taking a select few recognisable influences and then submerging them in a dark wash of spare guitar melodies, drifting organs, distant, brush-based percussion, psuedo-industrial sound collaging, liberally applied distortion and spacious, labyrinthine song structures, all of which lend the album a constant sense of dislocation and unease, as though the songs might be swallowed up by darkness at any moment. Bozulich’s ghostly vocal style wavers along the various stages between a barely-there, etherial whisper and a gutsy, attention-holding howl, making for an amazing performance, as she purges her deepest emotional turmoil on every track to create something that’s often harrowing, yet also strangely beautiful and moving. What it boils down to is that Evangelista is one of the decade’s most idiosyncratic, unforgettable recordings – this is music that stays with you long after the album rolls to a close.