Enlarge Christy Parry

As a kid, Mlny Parsonz found her voice by growling a Whitney Houston song in the back of a van.

Christy Parry

As a kid, Mlny Parsonz found her voice by growling a Whitney Houston song in the back of a van.

Royal Thunder is at a crucial point in its young career. The Atlanta hard-rock band's 2009 EP was like the hard-hitting rookie batter who causes serious chatter; a heavy, '70s-style riff machine with pipes that could tear through walls. But fast-burning flames burn the fastest, setting up crazy expectations and jinxing long-term prospects. To extend the baseball metaphor (sorry, I'm in full-on baseball mode right now), the members of Royal Thunder must have trained in the off-season for their new album CVI, developing songs beyond a killer riff and even adding a second guitarist to its roster. CVI not only builds on the promise of a great EP, but it's also a portrait of songs that have been painstakingly lived-in, like the deeply personal "Parsonz Curse."

Listen: Royal Thunder, 'Parsonz Curse'

Parsonz Curse

• Artist: Royal Thunder
• Album: CVI

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CVI comes out May 22 on Relapse Records.

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After two slow hi-hat hits and a two-note walkdown comes the voice of bassist Mlny Parsonz: a deep, bellowing howl that reaches straight into the chest. She can growl, coo and seethe in one phrase without breaking the seam. To be clear, Parsonz isn't the center of Royal Thunder, as many bands with female vocalists sometimes paint themselves. She's an integral part of the psychedelic, bluesy thud that slowly spirals upward from not only "Parsonz Curse," but also the album as a whole

When I called members (and spouses) Mlny Parsonz and guitarist Josh Weaver, both agreed separately that Royal Thunder needed time to regroup after the EP, though that never meant taking a break. Between nightly practices and performances, Weaver says he dug into guitar gear as Parsonz came to terms with her lyrics and what it meant to sing them.

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Loke Rahbek (left) and Elias Ronnenfelt of the newly (sort of) renamed Danish band VÅR.

Courtesy of the artist

Loke Rahbek (left) and Elias Ronnenfelt of the newly (sort of) renamed Danish band VÅR.

The young Danish musicians Elias Ronnenfelt and Loke Rahbek make songs that sound like dance music played through a long PVC tube filled with steel wool and muddy gauze. Lo-fi, punk-inspired sounds are in the duo's musical DNA: Ronnenfelt also plays in the band Iceage and Rahbek sings for Sexdrome and runs the Copenhagen-based punk label Posh Isolation.

Known until today as War (another band with the same name objected), the duo are announcing a new name today: VÅR. Along with the change, we're happy to offer a taste of the band's latest music.

Listen to VÅR

In Your Arms (Final Fantasy)

• Artist: VÅR
• Album: In Your Arms (Final Fantasy)

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In an email, Ronnenfelt and Rahbek said that the new track, "In Your Arms (Final Fantasy)," "was recorded in the middle of winter in a small warm room. And it's about looking for a thing for years and years and suddenly realising that you have there in your own eye and that you can put it onto everything you might look at."

"In Your Arms (Final Fantasy)" is based around a repeating synth loop and a basic drum machine pattern, and in its matter-of-fact depiction of longing, reminds me a little bit of the early music of The Cure. As for the band's new name: VÅR is pronounced like "War," but the meaning and the date the band chose to announce the change suggest a shift. Vår is the Danish word for "spring," and May 5 marks the anniversary of end of the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

"The name change happens in spring and is named thereafter," the duo wrote. "The name also states a new beginning for the project, that has been going on for already a few years by now. Starting as a post-industrial project releasing ltd. cassettes and now to be a multi media project, where in sound and image is of equal importance.

"VÅR is not music in a sense. its more like a way to wear your shirt and holding an arm around your friends."

VÅR's label, Sacred Bones, says it expects to release a full-length next spring.

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On Half Blood, Horseback's Jenks Miller (left) engages a New South not from ruins but a spiraling fire.

Courtest of the artist

On Half Blood, Horseback's Jenks Miller (left) engages a New South not from ruins but a spiraling fire.

"When people ask me to explain the South, I usually don't have an answer beyond saying it's too big, complex, and varied to pin down easily — or at all. [...] Who can know everything about it? The South keeps changing and surprising even as it's studied." — Marc Smirnoff, Oxford American

There's a certain amount of pride tied to the South's out-of-time attitude that's not so much laziness (okay, it is that, too) as it is the sense of taking time to do things right. That is what immediately struck me as I adopted the South as my home after moving there at age seven. But don't take this to mean that the South doesn't move forward. Instead, the South spirals. And just one of those many warped coils belongs to Chapel Hill's Horseback.

Half Blood is Horseback's third full-length album since 2009, a mythology-driven record hell-bent on turning the Apocalypse into personal revelation. It is a blackened and Southern-fried, Crazy Horse-style rocker that seamlessly dips into heavy backwoods drone 'n' gloom, which you can hear in its grizzly opener, "Mithras."

Listen: Horseback, 'Mithras'

Mithras

• Artist: Horseback
• Album: Half Blood

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Half Blood comes out May 8 on Relapse Records.

 

And as the driving force behind Horseback, Jenks Miller, wrote to me over email, the "American South's culture of shared influences, conflict and synthesis has helped shape my interests." Half Blood is a celebration of light through darkness, as Miller engages a New South not from ruins but a spiraling fire linking the hillbilly fluxus drone of Henry Flynt to Carl Jung's comparative mythology and the pulsating soul of Kraftwerk to a redneck Darkthrone jamming on Neil Young.

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Jesse Kristin, Ben Thornewill and Tommy Siegel of Jukebox the Ghost.

Shervin Lainez /Courtesy of the artist

Jesse Kristin, Ben Thornewill and Tommy Siegel of Jukebox the Ghost.

If the first 20 seconds of "Somebody" pass without some part of your body moving in time with the music, then something has probably gone terribly wrong.

Listen to Jukebox the Ghost's 'Somebody'

Somebody

• Artist: Jukebox The Ghost
• Album: Safe Travels

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From Jukebox the Ghost, I've come to expect the kind of punchy piano whips and falsetto jaunts that make me sit up in my chair — and then dance my way off of it completely — and the opening track from Safe Travels is no different. All the ingredients of the trio's piano-centric pop are in place: propulsive riffs, handclaps and sing-song "ohs" in all the right places, and the dynamic give-and-take that keeps the four-minute tune feeling short.

But the true heart of "Somebody" lies within its wistfully optimistic lyrics. Walking the line between externalized reflection and a hopeful plea, the searching phrases culminate in a singalong chorus that stares down the heaviness of longing and replaces it with infectious musical solidarity.

In an email, Ben Thornewill told us about the song's inspiration:

"Last year, I remember watching a couple, and I could just see the girl's eyes over the guy's shoulder, and she was looking up into the sky in this longing, beautiful sort of a way. The image stuck with me and I remember thinking, "What if she is looking for me?" The song was sort of born from that feeling; the hopeful longing for someone. In the end, we all want somebody to be waiting for us when we get home."

Safe Travels comes out June 12.

Enlarge Courtesy of the artist

Courtesy of the artist

It was a second and a half of silence that made me fall in love with "Winter Ghosts." JBM, a.k.a. Jesse Marchant, spends more than a minute playing a song filled with a sombre, cold mood and then, just as you think the song will crescendo and explode, it stops and lingers for exactly long enough to draw out the tension of the moment. In that stretched-out second you're required to fill in the blank space — giving a burst of nervous energy to the song.

Listen to JBM's "Winter Ghosts"

JBM

• Album: Stray Ashes
• Song: Winter Ghosts

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Marchant creates a sound that feels so vast with only vocals, guitar loops and a steady drum beat. Each element in the song includes some form of echo — the reverb on Marchant's voice or the repetitive guitar melody, which makes the track seem both hauntingly unnatural and spacious. There are so few pieces at work that the manipulations feel exaggerated — increasing the sense of space in the song while remaining an intimate, individual focus.

The lyrics are filled with a resigned hope. "'Winter Ghosts' is a song about all that is gone or missing, and about the realization that you are in fact desperately lost without it," Marchant wrote in an email. His narrator is waiting for things to happen — for a storm to come and for someone to arrive — but there's a hint of a realization that what he hopes for will never come. The song ends quietly, Marchant silent and stuck with only his memories of the past.

JBM's Stray Ashes will be out on May 22nd on Western Vinyl.

I first met Kelli Scarr when she collaborated with Moby on a song they'd written together as part of NPR's 'Project Song.' Kelli has a voice that draws me closer to a song: it's too alluring to stay in the background but gentle enough that it never feels demanding. She sang on Moby's Wait for Me before releasing her own more ethereal record, Piece, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for music she wrote for an HBO show called In A Dream.

'Dangling Teeth' By Kelli Scarr

Dangling Teeth

• Artist: Kelli Scarr
• Album: Dangling Teeth

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And now for something completely different. Kelli Scarr's new record, Dangling Teeth, is basically a country record. There are still wisps of dreaminess, but she and her talented band are playing songs that sit well on my record shelf next to Neil Young's Harvest. The album comes out June 5, but we have the title track, which also opens the record, right now.

We asked Kelli Scarr to tell us about "Dangling Teeth."

The song "Dangling Teeth" represents viewing a situation from an open plain and taking a chance by moving forward. It was important for me that this song be first on the album as it became the musical statement that connected the themes and emotions of the entire record. I felt more at home as a singer and a songwriter on this record and in this song I'm asking the audience to come in and explore this new territory with me. The opening line and elements of the chorus are also directly inspired by my reaction to seeing Pina Bausch's Vollmond performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2010. A good old fashioned threat opens the song: "I'll hit that smile with my mouth, I'll hunt you down." Lyrically, "Dangling Teeth" dares you to take a risk on the magic and mystery of moving towards the unknown and Scott Metzger's beautiful guitar melody envelops the playfulness of this idea.

Dangling Teeth will be out June 5th from Silence Breaks.

Shawn Brackbill/Courtesy of the artist

Bear in Heaven's album, I Love You, It's Cool, is out April 3 on Dead Oceans/Hometapes.

"Your friends don't know what you go through," sings Jon Philpot in the opening lines to "Sinful Nature," the brand new single from Bear In Heaven's I Love You, It's Cool, out April 3. "Surrender your self-control ... Are you hiding your sinful nature?"

LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This song contains an instance of profanity.

Listen to Bear In Heaven's 'Sinful Nature'

Sinful Nature

• Artist: Bear In Heaven
• Album: I Love You, It's Cool

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Bear in Heaven likes drone (you can still listen to the experimental stream of the new album, slowed down so extremely that a single play lasts 2,700 hours, at the band's website), and the songs on I Love You, It's Cool are full of sounds that call to mind a dance party heard through a neighbor's wall — buzzy and hazy and romantic for being a little distant. But given the lyrics here, and the song on an earlier album titled "Lovesick Teenagers," it's clear there's a vein of melodramatic angst running through Bear in Heaven's songs as well.

Philpot sings directly rather than letting the atmospherics mask his intent. When he sings, "You don't deny me your sinful nature," it sounds like a seduction cut with menace.

That might be the intent. In an email, Philpot explains the song's perspective:

"'Sinful Nature' is an ode to all the shy girls out there. Don't restrain your inner freak. You could change the world if you just let yourself. It's also an inner dialogue between my responsible and not-responsible self."

I Love You, It's Cool will be out April 3 on Dead Oceans/Hometapes, but you can pre-order the album now, and download an MP3 of 'Sinful Nature' via SoundCloud.

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Bruce Springsteen

Danny Clinch/Shore Fire Media

Bruce Springsteen

Note: The song is no longer available. We only had permission to post this song for 24 hours.

There's been a lot of Bruce Springsteen news lately, and we've got two more pieces to share with you. First, we're thrilled to announce that NPR Music will broadcast Springsteen's keynote speech from the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. The live webcast of that address will take place here on NPR Music on March 15 at noon Central time.

Listen To Bruce Springsteen's 'Rocky Ground'

Rocky Ground

• Artist: Bruce Springsteen
• Album: Wrecking Ball [Deluxe Edition]

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More immediately: Springsteen's 17th studio album, Wrecking Ball, comes out next Tuesday, March 6. Between now and then you'll be able to hear a handful of songs from the album around the Internet, and we've got one for you today. Just today, and only right here, you can listen to what I think is the most creative song on the record, "Rocky Ground." Listen now — it'll disappear at midnight.

"Rocky Ground" is a song about keeping faith while the floodwaters rise. The song has those yearning spiritual horns I always loved in Van Morrison records, but this song doesn't stop there. It opens with a sample of a historical recording: the words "I'm a soldier," from the Church of God in Christ Congregation's performance of "I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord," recorded by Alan Lomax in Clarksdale, Miss., in 1942.

The song builds as slowly as those floodwaters Bruce sings about, to a rap, written by Springsteen and delivered by gospel singer Michelle Moore. Moore is a part of the Victorious Gospel Choir, which appears here as well (you can also hear the singers on The Rising), giving just the heft and sway this song needs; frankly, it take this song home. It's a fine bit of songwriting, so full of craft and so full of soul.

Where do you think this song fits in the canon of Springsteen recordings?

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"All the Rowboats" will appear on Regina Spektor's upcoming album, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats.

Courtesy of the artist

"All the Rowboats" will appear on Regina Spektor's upcoming album, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats.

We last heard new music from Regina Spektor in 2009, but that freeze is about to thaw. According to her label, Sire, a new album called What We Saw From The Cheap Seats is scheduled for a late spring release. Tomorrow you'll be able to buy a song from the album called "All The Rowboats," but you can listen to it right now.

Listen To Regina Spektor's 'All The Rowboats'

All The Rowboats

• Artist: Regina Spektor
• Album: What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

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The song gives life to great works of art trapped in museums, in a way only Regina Spektor can do it: "it's their own fault, for being timeless," she exclaims. Like all the songs on the new album, Spektor wrote "All The Rowboats" herself and recorded it with producer Mike Elizondo over this past summer. Solo piano is again the basis for the songs, but "All The Rowboats" gets big — especially the percussion. Elizondo, who also worked on Spektor's last record, Far, has produced for a wide variety of artists, including Fiona Apple, Dr. Dre, Mastodon and Carrie Underwood.

In addition to the new album, Spektor will release a seven-inch record with covers of two Russian songs, "The Prayer of Francois Villon" and "Old Jacket," for Record Store Day, on April 21. Starting in April, she'll also tour arenas with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

Enlarge Courtesy of the artist

Courtesy of the artist

It's no surprise that New York's Callers and New Jersey's Delicate Steve would fit together like guitars and bass. Both bands make inventive music that can seem precise yet enjoyably ramshackle at the same time. A new single pairs Delicate Steve's rainbow-tinged guitars with Callers' nimble instrumentation. It's called Further Out/Perfect Pairs and we are happy to have a preview for your listening pleasure.

"Further Out" by Callers And Delicate Steve

Further Out

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The story of "Further Out" is both a meditation on the cyclical nature of life and a story of hotel occupants happily watching their time quickly pass away. I can't get the beginning of the chorus out of my mind. Callers' singer Sarah Lucas saying that she's "Got a grasp of the whole/a particular order." In a sense those two lines could sum up the entirety of the song. Every small piece fits inside its own precise spot in the melody, creating a pulsing rhythm that grabs the listener and never lets go. The mix of skittering drums, buzzy guitars and Lucas' quick vocals create an electrifying two-step.

Delicate Steve's Steve Marion described to us how the two bands decided to collaborate together.

I met Sara through some mutual friends at a Deerhoof concert last year. Soon after that I checked out her band (on Myspace!!) and was really into it. I sent her an idea I had for a song while on tour, then we met for a minute during SXSW, saw each other's bands, and talked about making a song when we were both home from tour. Next we met up at Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" concert in NY where our bands were both playing. I had an awesome time in the mosh pit with [Callers' guitarist Ryan Seaton]. Shortly after that, we made "Further Out" collaborating back and forth in our home studios."

You can preorder the Callers & Delicate Steve's Further Out/Perfect Pairs 7" at the Western Vinyl online store.

Enlarge Emily Dennison/Girlie Action

UK Singer Liz Green

Emily Dennison/Girlie Action

UK Singer Liz Green

"Joe is my imaginary friend/alter-ego."
-Liz Green

Liz Green is a voice from another time. The U.K. singer has a welcome sound with inflections that are seductive and expressive and a delivery that makes every word count. Her new album, O Devotion!, is a bit of Tom Waits, a bit of Kurt Weill and certainly an original. And though that record doesn't come out until February 7, you can listen to its leadoff cut, "Hey Joe," right now.

New Song, Stunning Voice: Liz Green's 'Hey Joe'

Hey Joe

• Artist: Liz Green
• Album: O Devotion!

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All we knew when we heard the song was that this wasn't the "Hey Joe" made famous by Jimi Hendrix. So we asked Liz Green to share with us the origins of her "Joe," from the music to the story the lyrics tell:

"'Hey Joe' is one of the simpler songs on the album. I enjoy the repetitive nature of lyrics in the blues songs I was listening to — two the same and then one different — but I never knew how to play blues. I taught myself guitar and this is what I came out with. It's my interpretation of that style of storytelling/songwriting. Needless to mention, melodrama and death are things I like to play with thematically," she says.

"Here is a simple bitter tale of love. Although. It probably never was. It's a soap opera. In blues form. Man meets woman. Falls for her. Woman takes advantage, steals money and runs off. Man takes her back. She wrongs him again. Until she is in turn wronged herself. It's a modern fable, really. It's the relationship between the giver and the taker. And how both can be damaging in the end. The Joe in the story thinks so little of himself he always surrenders to a person who is no good. And his lover thinks so little of herself that she cannot be honest.

"Gender is unimportant. It could be any way round. That's just the way it came out."

As Liz tells it, the character of Joe has an involved back story of his own.

"Joe is my imaginary friend/alter-ego," she writes. "Kinda an everyman character. His full name is Starling Joe and he possesses the head of a bird and body of a man. It casts him outside of society. Outside of time really. I use him as a conduit to experience different ages and times and places and situations. His is a constant presence through past, present and future. Drawing it all into relevance to myself ... helping me to experience and understand. That's maybe putting a little too much on his bony shoulders. But he carries it well."

Learn more about this release on PIAS America.

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Cover art for the new Galactic album,'Carnivale Electricos'

courtesy of the artist

Cover art for the new Galactic album,'Carnivale Electricos'

Galactic, the great — these days I'd say legendary — New Orleans party band, are a mainstay of Mardi Gras music despite never having recorded a Carnival record. Until now. This Mardi Gras, February 21, the group's new album, Carnivale Electricos, will hit the streets, and we have a preview for you now.

Song Premiere: Galactic, 'Magalenha'

'Magalenha'

• Artist: Galactic
• Album: Carnivale Electricos

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The album is filled with contributions from New Orleans music masters including Al "Carnival Time" Johnson; the classic voice of New Orleans, Mr. Cyril Neville; master Cajun accordionist Steve Riley and the rapper Mystikal, among others. The very long list is filled with some of the funkiest fun musicians in New Orleans today, and because the album also explores Brazilian carnival music, you also hear Carlinhos Brown and the New Orleans Carnival ambassadors of Brazilian Music, Casa Samba.

That group is featured on the track we have to share with you today, a song that was made famous in the 1960s by Sergio Mendes, one of the most famous Brazilians to make music in the U.S. Galactic's Robert Mercurio describes recording their version of "Magalenha," which was written by Carlinhos Brown:

This is a remake of the Sergio Mendes classic song, which is very popular around Carnivale. We recorded it with New Orleans' Brazilian troupe, Casa Samba. We took the original blueprint and added in our own Galactic weirdness.

So while we're still weeks away from Fat Tuesday, give yourself a little time to prepare for the celebration with this sneak preview from Galactic's Carnivale Electricos.

And you can pre-order the new album by Galactic by going here http://galacticfunk.com/carnivale-electricos

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Christian Mistress.

Courtesy of the artist

Christian Mistress.

Not all metal that boogies sounds as vital as Christian Mistress. That's not to say that boogying isn't vital to life (oh, it is), but there's something more urgent to this rock 'n' roll party, especially the surprisingly catchy "Black to Gold."

Listen: Christian Mistress 'Black To Gold'

Black To Gold

• Artist: Christian Mistress
• Album: Possession

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Possession comes out Feb. 28 on Relapse Records.

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"Black to Gold" comes from Christian Mistress' second album, Possession, a significant step up from the raw, basement-recorded Agony and Opium. There's no mistaking that the Olympia band loves Iron Maiden and Witchfinder General of the '80s-style metal called New Wave of British Heavy Metal (or NWOBM for short), but underneath the debut there lurked something modern.

This is where Possession moves forward, not only with a fuller production to fill out a sound Christian Mistress already outgrew, but also dips into proggy '70s fuzz and convincing balladry (the potentially great live closer "There is Nowhere") for a sound that may feel familiar, but definitely thinks about what this music means in 2012 and beyond. Vocalist Christine Davis, guitarists Oscar Sparbel and Ryan McClain, bassist Johnny Wulf and drummer Reuben Storey make a mean cocktail, including hard, '50s R&B-derived rhythms, a penchant for arena-sized guitar solos equally suited for crowded bars, and a raspy female vocalist halfway through a whiskey shot and a book of Baudelaire.

When I called vocalist Christine Davis, Christian Mistress had just finished up a small tour with Hammers of Misfortune, a band taking a much-deserved victory lap after 17th Street made a number of year-end lists (including my own). In an interview, Davis especially made a good point that — no matter your stance on what the band is or isn't — there is no such thing as a NWOBHM revival, "but that's just because this music never died."

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Ari Picker of Lost In The Trees.

Lost In The Trees was one of our favorite new discoveries when the North Carolina band released its hauntingly gorgeous full-length debut for Anti- Records, All Alone in an Empty House, in 2010. Now the group is back with a much-anticipated followup, A Church That Fits Our Needs. The album isn't out until March, but we've got a sneak preview with this cut from the record, called "Red."

Song Premiere: Lost In The Trees, 'Red'

Red

• Artist: Lost In The Trees
• Album: A Church That Fits Our Needs
• Song: Red

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While All Alone was a carefully composed and deeply personal collection of songs, Lost In The Trees frontman Ari Picker says the new album is more improvised and less conceptual:

"In writing the last record, I had been in a continuous struggle to capture the emotions of my family's story. 'Red' started as a backlash against this. I started playing with different ideas and simply named the song after a color, which seemed artful in itself. I've never really been into the idea of making art for the sake of art, but lately I've become more attracted to its spontaneity. 'Red' was a victim of this experiment. Lyrics like 'color for my eyes' come from this same spontaneous space. But they are mixed with truer moments, such as 'your love carried me through today,' which is what my mom had entered in her journal on the day she discovered she had cancer. Powerful stuff like that. So it is a Frankenstein — a collage of images that spawn from daydreams and acute moments of life-changing memories."

A Church That Fits Our Needs comes out March 20. In the meantime, you can see the band give an intimate performance at the NPR Music offices, and hear a full concert from Washington, D.C.

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Marketa Irglova (at piano) and her band: (from left) Sean Rowe, Tim Iseler, Aida Shahghasemi and Rob Bochnik.

Courtesy of the artist

Marketa Irglova (at piano) and her band: (from left) Sean Rowe, Tim Iseler, Aida Shahghasemi and Rob Bochnik.

Marketa Irglova is currently taking a break from singing alongside Glen Hansard as part of The Swell Season to release her first solo album, Anar. The album centers on the smooth female harmonies of Irglova and Iranian singer Aida Shahghasemi. In spite of its focus on female vocalists, the project isn't keeping Irglova from collaborating with another male singer with a soulful, gritty voice.

Irglova, who got her break co-starring in the Academy Award-winning Irish film Once and recently performed behind the Tiny Desk, is currently on tour with folk-rock musician Sean Rowe. While on the road together, she and the New York native with the distinctive baritone voice decided to collaborate on a duet of Neil Young's "Birds."

Listen to their gorgeous rendition here:

Song Premiere: Marketa Irglova & Sean Rowe, 'Birds'

Birds

• Artist: Marketa Irglova & Sean Rowe

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We asked Rowe and Irglova to tell us more about what inspired them to collaborate on the song:

Marketa Irglova:

I've been really enjoying singing with Aida. Creating a unified sound with her, gentle in nature, that's meant to soothe and comfort. Getting to lend that to Sean's dynamic and somewhat raw sound has been fun. I'm all for women, but even more so for women and men in harmony, creating together what neither can do alone.

Sean Rowe:

It has been such a great privilege for me to be sharing this tour with such a talent as Marketa. She's able to consistently conjure up such a haunting and distinctive sound. There's a real innocent beauty and deep abyss in her voice. Smooth as silk, but there's also a lot of shadows in there. I love singing with her. I feel the cards are right for us to collaborate again in the future.