Keywords: Indie, Rock, New-Wave, Alternative, Darkwave, Trip-Pop
Via: freealbums.blogsome.com
HP: www.hungrylucy.com
Archive: details
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hungrylucy

For their fourth release, Hungry Lucy beautifully demonstrates their passion for the craft of songwriting. Rather than spend months in production, this time around the duo present “Before We Stand … We Crawl” as a collection of six raw, emotional songs. These basic arrangements use piano, acoustic guitar, strings, wind instruments and sparse drum parts to underpin Christa Belle’s heart-felt lyrics and highly emotive vocals. Taking the “less is more” approach, the duo purposely left each song exposed with emotion at the surface, stripping away any pretense that may surround electronic music.

The EP features 3 brand new songs (”A Girl Alone”, “Harvest” and “Losing Faith”) as well as stripped down versions of some of Hungry Lucy’s past favorites (”Storm”, “Alfred”, and “Fearful”). Reminiscent of artists like Keane, Coldplay and Sia, “Harvest” begins with piano and Christa’s lonesome voice singing of a tragedy that brings people closer. The song ultimately builds to a powerful crescendo of music and emotion. “Losing Faith” takes an electro-organic approach to a mournful tale of souls drifting apart, reminiscent of Goldfrapp or Lamb. The stripped down version of “Alfred” (originally from Hungry Lucy’s first album, Apparitions) brings a haunting new spirit to this HL classic. Rounding out the EP is a live, unplugged recording of “Fearful” (originally from the album, Glo) with nothing but piano and vocals. This version of “Fearful” was originally recorded during Hungry Lucy’s weekly podcast “Tea with Hungry Lucy”.

In a move that’s part social experiment, and part commentary on the bizarre tactics of the mainstream music industry, Hungry Lucy are releasing “Before We Stand … We Crawl” under Creative Commons license. In a nutshell, this license allows listeners to share these songs with friends and know that the band is on their side. In fact, the staunchly independent Hungry Lucy is encouraging their fans to make copies of the EP and spread it around.

Through their music, website and podcasts, Hungry Lucy have always invited their fans into their lives. With the release of this EP, the duo takes another small step to break down the creator vs. consumer wall and welcome you into their world.

Before We Stand … We Crawl.

Review by Marvin

Hungry Lucy is usually described as being Trip-hop or even Darkwave, yet the six tracks on their creative commons licensed EP, Before We Walk…We Crawl are primarily acoustic with piano, guitar, strings, woodwinds, percussion and only a hint of electronic instruments. The artists have made what they describe as a “stripped down” release focusing on the emotional power of the band and its vocalist, Christa Belle.

And what a nice experiment it is. I admit I have not heard Hungry Lucy on their commercial CDs, yet this EP has a naturally beautiful sound. Ms. Belle has a voice that easily wraps itself around the lyrics and the exquisite arrangements. She reminds me very much of Sia, an artist I’ve only recently discovered. As a whole, Hungry Lucy sports a sound that can be compared to Lamb or Blonde Redhead. The album consists of three new tunes and three older songs that were remade for this particular endeavor. They are all good but I find the opening “A Girl Alone” and the live unplugged version of “Fearful” to be the standouts. This get a highly recommended from yours truly.

The album is available from The Internet Archive in formats of FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, or MP3. This lovely but addictive EP is a bit short at 24 minutes so, if you like the music, the antidote is to support the artist by buying their CDs.

Tracklist (320kBit/s)

A Girl Alone 8.6M
Harvest 11.5M
Losing Faith 9.9M
Storm (carried away) 10.1M
Alfred (haunted) 9.8M
Fearful (live & unplugged) 8.8M

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M3U

Download (right click, save as) (57MB, 320kBit/s)

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