Alela Diane’s latest outing finds the songstress joined by her guitarist father Tom Menig and multi-instrumentalist husband Tom Bevitori – both members of her band, the eponymous Wild Divine. However, it is testament to Diane’s talent that it is not simply family who are keen to pitch in. Scott Litt – long associated with REM – can count the likes of Patti Smith, The Replacements and That Petrol Emotion amongst his former employers. The celebrated producer was so taken with the demos of this record that he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to work with Diane.
Using pedal steel, slide guitar, banjo, mandolin and robust percussion, Litt has constructed a lavish stage upon which her voice can dance and enrapture. Diane pours herself like liquid silver over lyrics that muse on mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things, and our relationship(s) with nature and each other.
Although unquestionably beautiful, this is also an often sombre record. Songs such as ‘The Wind’ and ‘Heartless Highway’ tell of life and love that – like water between the fingers – is ever slipping away. As ‘Desire’ tells us, Diane is “looking for something” and this yearning is threaded through the record – note particularly the bright guitar jangle and pleading vocal of ‘Suzanne’.
Meanwhile, the likes of ‘Elijah’ and ‘Long Way Down’ signal that this is a more conventional proposition than 2009’s psychedelia-furred breakthrough, To Be Still. Thus, while it lacks its predecessor’s quirkiness, Wild Divine retains the old-world folksiness and languid tone. These songs – thoughtful, delicate, sincere – provide a welcome respite from the multitude of contemporary acts “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. Alela Diane has no need to shout for our attention, when she can seduce with the merest whisper.