This isn’t any sort of Tanya Donelly I’ve heard before. Admittedly I’ve not heard any of her solo albums, though. Her work with her sister in the group Throwing Muses was harsh, jangling noise. Her work with Belly was bouncy pop. This isn’t anything like that.
The first thing that came to mind when I heard Whiskey Tango Ghosts is torch songs and crooners. It’s all very romantic. Like love songs from the 40’s by women jazz singers. It’s like Dido with more guitar, Sarah Maclachlan with a less operatic voice. It’s as if she went back in time and threw away everything that influenced her before. She got rid of all the punk and pop that was the essence of her sound and started over. This sounds like Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, maybe just a touch of Patsy Cline (there’s steel guitar in several songs).
It makes you wonder what she’s been through in the past ten years to change her sound so profoundly. I would read a bio to find out if she’s been through a divorce or had children, just to see if her life had really changed in some profound way. But I won’t do that. Bio’s never really tell you what’s happened, just what the Public Relations weasels want you to hear.
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