What a cool name for a music website! Thanks Jason for the review!

 

Marianne Kesler 

Pear in the Pink Thing
4 stars

By Jason Thompson

Folk popster Marianne Kesler has made an enjoyable album here, with her warm, inviting voice at the fore of the mix and the rest of the production having a very live feel to it. It’s always easy to compare female folk artists to prior greats such as Suzanne Vega, etc., but at the same time why not do that when it’s justified? Indeed, “Mystery” is one of those tunes Vega or someone like Natalie Merchant could have written just as easily. “Still Small Sadness” recalls Lynn Canfield of Area and The Moon Seven Times with equally enticing results. “Neon Moon” goes for a jazzier feel, with its percussion and arrangement being not too far removed from Joni Mitchell during her Hissing of Summer Lawns era. Kesler closes the album with two Neil Young tunes. “Ohio” and “The Needle & The Damage Done.” The former may not have been the wisest choice, as Kesler’s voice doesn’t really deliver the grit for the subject matter, but the latter fares better. Yet it’s the original tunes here that truly shine. Good stuff, indeed.