You may have heard music and songs close to what Adey Bell offers on Venus Exalted Vol. 2 – Tribute to the Dearly Departed. However, you have not heard anything quite like this.
It recalls what others refer to as “music of the spheres”. Adey Bell obviously puts a high premium on invoking atmosphere and delivering the EP’s three songs in an indelible style. However, fundamentals ground these songs and keep them from coming across as sonically pleasing fluff.
Outstanding piano playing distinguishes the opener “North Star”. Written about famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, the man responsible for arguably one of the biggest leaks in United States history with his early 1970s release of The Pentagon Papers, Bell’s writing honors every moral truthteller in this mode. Her narrative talents, as both a songwriter and lyricist, are admirable.
She has an ideal voice for pairing with the piano. Some listeners will object to her insistence, here and elsewhere, on marrying the purity of her pipes with several studio “tricks” such as multi-tracking. Others will hear these decisions as smart enhancements. Bell’s voice makes its presence felt regardless and maintains an effective balance between her vocals and the musical accompaniment. “North Star” expertly tailors them to serve each other. Incorporating violin into the song’s second half is a nice touch.
“Phoenix” expands on the opener’s methodology. It relies less on the mix of Bell’s singing and superb piano playing. However, make no mistake, these two components continue to be crucial to her sound. She reinforces their strengths with artful contributions from instruments such as drums and guitar. Her lyrical excellence continues unabated. Swells of keyboard illuminate her scat vocalizing with an alluring ethereal light. It is the EP’s shortest track, just clearing the five-minute mark, but listeners will not feel cheated.
Nor will they feel overwhelmed by the finale’s nearly seven-minute duration. “Prayer” has a straighter trajectory and a more muted tone than the first two tracks. Nevertheless, “Prayer” pursues many of the same sonic ends driving the earlier performances. Bell colors the piano playing in far darker shades than we heard from “North Star” and “Phoenix”, but it isn’t a radical departure.
The song’s construction resists much of the same multi-movement-oriented structure defining the first cuts. She builds peaks and valleys into the arrangement, but more restrained than prior songs. Nonetheless, it is an effective conclusion for Venus Exalted Vol. 2. Adey Bell creates and performs a cohesive musical and narrative experience that never sinks under the weight of predictability or cliché.
There’s nothing about Adey Bell’s Venus Exalted Vol. 2 -Tribute to the Dearly Departed that smacks of cliché. Much of what she does involves pouring old wine into new bottles, yes, but Bell executes it with such artful skill that it takes on surprising freshness. The three songs included in this EP release are far less than thirty minutes yet are guaranteed to provide listeners with pleasures that extend for months if not years. It’s an excellent return on our investment.
Chadwick Easton