Jessica Vale - Brand New Disease Explicit Records

Hidden within the never-ending chaos of New York City resides a woman with a brooding voice that attempts to lure listeners into discovering her latest creation. The frail and pale vocalist is Jessica Vale and her newest invention is Brand New Disease, the follow-up album to her steamy 2005 debut, The Sex Album. Although she doesn't use the live sex sounds that kept everyone, including shock jock Howard Stern, intrigued, she instead draws inspiration from TriBeCa, Manhattan's most expensive neighborhood. Despite many hours recording at Warren Street Studio where Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is a notable client, Vale fails to deliver the corset-ripping voice needed for her cinematic songs.     The first track “Black and Blue,” is a nerve wrecking, creepy single that runs like a classic horror film. Drumming, reminiscent of a frightened human heartbeat, leads to bass strings being pulled apart, translating into a passive, unchanging melody. The beat, created by bassist Matthew St. Joseph and guitarist Ivan Evangelista, invokes a misty, late night in a Manhattan back alley with shadows dancing to the erratic, heavy breathing of anxious girls desperately seeking refuge from peering predators. However, Vale barely opens her burgundy mouth to sing. When she does murmur her six lines, her voice is too airy, forbidding any emotion that lyrics on Mozart's death and babies hiding would evoke. It's only at the end where Vale suddenly shrieks like a caged beast, making her sorrows believable. A few seconds later, Evangelista feverishly pounds his guitar and the single instantly ends. Fortunately, Vale redeems herself with a few gloomy, yet memorable tracks that separates her from all the wannabe Goths sucking on ecstasy pills in the Manhattan nightclub, Hidden Shadows.     “You Don't Wanna Know,” includes Vale dreamily singing with a much deeper tone. With a slow strumming guitar, a heavily thumping baseline and barely there drums, this New Wave drama chronicles all the past messy breakups that still bring tears. However, every other track contains repetitive melodies and questionable lyrics, such as “Who's the most punk at the ball?” with overconfident, rhythmic speech. Sadly, Vale's sophomore album doesn't contain enough dark ballads that explore nihilism and tragic romance to keep listeners interested. While Brand New Disease carries a sense of paranoia from being alone in the city that never sleeps, Vale's lack of effort to sing begs the question: why press play?     -Stephanie Nolasco

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Published on: 2007-10-21 (313 reads)