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Destructible Records

Produced by
Helen Page

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Paperplain - Entering Pale Town
There’s a small problem with the first release on the newly formed Destructible label – it’s going to be mighty hard to follow it up with something as good. Paperplain is 19 year-old Helen Page and mini-album Entering Pale Town is her second release. Exquisitely packaged, it contains seven songs of delicate fragility recorded in her bedroom, though the recording is so sumptuous that it sounds like she and her guitar (or piano) are in yours. The songs themselves are sparse, sweet and simple, dominated by pained, pretty vocals full of yearning and gentle melodies that come alive through clever multi-tracking of her instruments and voice. Yet if the first impression is one of innocuous innocence, a closer inspection of the lyrics also reveal more mischievous and jaded sides - Foreign Fingers tells the tale of a seductress tempting someone else’s boyfriend into bed with her, while Rescue Boat is an emotionally weary song of sad defeatism. Conversely, Go Go NY is lyrically abstruse, yet utterly compelling and 11.30 is a melancholy lullaby for nights gone wrong. What all these songs do is offer, however, is hope, understanding and the assurance that everyone fucks up sometimes. So take a glass of whatever alcohol is at hand, turn off the lights and let these songs sink into you before flying you off to somewhere far, far away...



Reviewed by: Mischa Pearlman

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