Her Name In Lights debut album
Into the Light Again
design: ben serbutt / image: brian wyer
laughing outlaw records
Her Name in Lights “Into The Light Again” (Laughing Outlaw 2005) In what could well be a concept album about infatuation and rejection, Her Name in Lights have produced a more resigned, more forgiving version of ‘Jagged Little Pill’. Mary Wyer’s unpolished vocals and the album’s ultra lo-fi production lend a certain authenticity to the lyrics which read like a lovelorn teenager’s tear-spattered diary. “I loved you more than you loved your car/and though you left my house/your car stayed on my street/and it stayed for six weeks”. Unashamedly ‘girly’; naive and dainty with the merest flicker of vengeance in her winsome voice, Wyer’s pink confessions save themselves with a refreshing honesty and manage to document with charm and insight the many ways love seduces, then ruins, then rebuilds and redeems us. Buried in the middle of all this heartache is a strummy acoustic lament which turns out to be a breathtaking version of the otherwise completely execrable ‘Sex Bomb’. For that alone, this Australian outfit deserves a listen.
RC 7 out of 10
images: mary wyer & almond cafarella