I must admit to having had a real soft spot for The Nymphs, a band that along with Warrior Soul were the ‘could have been’ and ‘should have been’ the future of Rock and Roll as Hair Metal ran towards the edge of the cliff with labels looking for too many Poison wannabees instead of backing the sleazier Bluesier hard rock that had s much to offer. Still what do labels know? Look what they’ve done to bands with streaming just to make a quick buck. Imagine a world where instead of heroin chic Grunge we got something dangerous instead? It was never gonna happen was it?
Still if you get the chance definitely check out that solitary album and EP. After the Nymphs Inger Lorre battled her demons and made more music, most notably with Jeff Buckley before he died. There was a Rock album in 1999 ‘Transcendental Medication’ but that was it. The last twenty years in terms of recorded music have been sparse, but in 2016 Inger announced a show at the Viper Room “doing 99% Nymphs songs.” That became the live album ‘ Inger Lorre – Live at the Viper Room’ in 2017.
Now in 2023 Lorre’s second solo album, produced by Paul Roessler and entitled ‘Gloryland’, is scheduled to be released on October 6, 2023 on Kitten Robot Records and it’s not the album you might expect.
I like a bit of Americana, and this is essentially what Lorre’s second solo record is. Opening with ‘More Real’ it’s quite easy to come to terms with the seismic shift from Rock and Roll to Folkier, more relaxed fare. I actually like the sparse sounds of acoustic, drums and voice and the dreamy vocal and palpable despair of the vocal – they all leave a trail. It’s a strong song to open with and sounds as good as anything rolling around the genre currently.
‘Death Is a Horizon’ slows the tempo and proceeds to tell a tale that sounds autobiographical and that is part of the power here – there’s a spiritualty and a self-effacing honesty that’s beguiling lyrically and underlined in the mournful yearning vocal. And if we need musical reference points then ‘Song For Elliott Smith’ is the neon sign.
It’s been 20 years since Elliott Smith died of stab wounds and the coroner left an open verdict. As The Guardian noted in his obituary: “Plenty of folky singer-songwriters have a reputation for making introspective, melancholy music, but none quite like Smith’s. To some critics he was Mr. Misery – a pun on ‘Miss Misery’, the song for which he was Oscar-nominated in 1998. He was the “unhappiest man in the land”, a singer you didn’t so much listen to as commiserate with.“
Now I wouldn’t label Lorre’s second solo album quite as beak but it clearly covers similar territory even if the path is a little more hopeful. The song itself isn’t the cheeriest you’ll hear this year. It is powerful though and somehow the lilting guitars make it even more forlorn.
‘Coldest Season’ by contrast almost sashays in, with chugging guitar there’s an energy and a light that just peeps out before ‘Black Sons’ threatens to rock and rides out on a jagged riff that sees Lorre’s most assertive vocal. It’s the closest we’ll get here to The Nymphs and one of my highlights.
P.J. Proby’s 1967 hit – ‘Nicky Hoeky’ gets the stripped back, slowed down, guitar and keys shuffle treatment, it’s the perfect song for that approach and Lorre’s vocals sound part Country and part beatnik on vacation with Tom Waits and a 60’s Hammond organ.
The hypnotic ‘Learn to Die’ makes a nice noise and ‘Chebella’ is another low key and enchanting story that draws you in. It’s ‘Om Gan’ that surprises though with its spiritual resonances and experimental take on the Hindu Ganesha Mantra that harnesses dissonant effects to punctuate the chant and interwoven vocal. It works and I’d like to have heard more in this vein. Its almost like concocting a stew and realizing you missed the secret ingredient at the last minute, not being able to find it and so throwing something else in the pot entirely.
We close with the title track ‘Gloryland’ a song in the vein of a negro spiritual or Bluegrass Gospel. It’s a moving way to close and beautifully crafted. Whether it’s an original or not I have no idea because it sound s authentic. It’s a wonderful way to close.
Imagine a pot with Ganesh, P.J. Proby, Country, Rock, Folk and Elliott Smith all floating comfortably together? And that’s not the half of it. I love it.
8 / 10
