Exaltation of Larks

Exaltation of Larks, Dot Allison's first album since 2002's We Are Science, is a near-total overhaul for the Scottish singer/songwriter, who had been exploring a synthesis of artsy shoegazer pop and trip-hoppy electronica ever since her days as the leader of early-'90s Andrew Weatherall protégés One Dove. The chilly synthesizer textures are entirely gone from Exaltation of Larks, replaced by layers of overdubbed acoustic and electric guitars, strings (alternately folksy fiddle parts and orchestral full-string sections), piano, banjo, and hand percussion. In some ways, it's hard not to think of the sound of this album as a bit of a bandwagon jump, Allison abandoning the moribund electronic field in favor of the currently fashionable "new weird folk" trend. While it's true that the ghosts of Judee Sill and Sandy Denny, not to mention the recently rediscovered likes of Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs, loom large over Exaltation of Larks thanks to the blend of folk and psychedelic elements and the limpid sigh of Allison's breathy voice, unprejudiced comparison to Allison's earlier solo albums Afterglow and We Are Science reveals that at its heart, Exaltation of Larks is not really all that far a stretch. Allison has always had a folkish delicacy to her vocal style, and has regularly drifted into shimmering neo-psychedelia of a more electronic sort in her previous work. All that's different about songs like the stark acoustic ballad "Quicksand" and the Kate Bush-like swirl of "The Latitude and Longitude of Mystery" is the instruments used. The hardcore technophiles in Allison's fan base may be aghast, but Exaltation of Larks certainly won't disappoint most fans, once the initial surprise wears off.