Heather Duby

When you hear Heather Duby you know you’re listening to Heather Duby. She has a “sound”…a style. The only true similar artist to come to mind though, is Dido.

Duby has an eerie darkness in her songs that would never be found in anything resembling pop. Her music has thick orchestration, whether she’s leaning towards the electronic, as with Post to Wire, or going more organic like with her sophomore release, Come Across the River. She’s more easily grouped with artists such as PJ Harvey and Tori Amos both because of the eeriness and the personal, storytelling style of her lyrics. Like Harvey and Amos, her lyrics are almost theatrical, emotional and yet realistically sullen. Track three, The Rare Vavoom, brings indie darlings Denali to mind, and again the description of theatrical fits.

Duby has changed since her debut though. While Post to Wire is a treasured piece of my album collection, named as one that “evokes absolutely no feeling”. Come Across the River, though having much of her signature sound, is a completely different album.

Much more focused on instrumentation, it is an amazing second release. If you thought Duby as previously emotionless, all you need to do is turn up The Haunting Providence. Like Mazzy Starr, it’s thick and soft, with perfect tambourine chimes and that amazing washed out lead guitar sound that only Among My Swan could rival.

Backed up by an amazing band, Duby isn’t exactly picking up where Hope Sandoval and Mazzy Starr left off. It has much more instrumentation along with Duby’s amazing voice; there’s really no one who sounds like her. Full of maturity and depth, her voice resonates her words perfectly. If you thought Beth Orton had one of the strongest, most mature voices in music today, Duby could prove you wrong.

Always referred to as “ethereal”, she is of the darker side of that definition. Rather than the light, airiness that word implies, Come Across the River is a heavy album. Meaning, it’s weighty, dense and darker then a lot of the more atmospheric stuff you’ll come across.

Duby ranks alongside Maura Davis of Denali in originality rather then much of what comes out these days.

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