Cindy Lee definitely blew my mind when they dropped
What’s Tonight to Eternity? back in February. It’s taken me a minute to collect my thoughts on it, and I’m still not sure I totally understand what I’m hearing. I wouldn’t be much of a music writer if I didn’t start drafting before I totally knew what I was writing about, though. This profession has standards that we all must strive to maintain after all. Cindy Lee is Patrick Flegel, Canadian singer and songwriter, and former front-person for the band Women. Women is easily one of my favorite post-punk bands, and Cindy Lee continues to find herself dogged by many of her old band’s habits and preoccupations. By the later, of course, I mean ‘60s chamber pop and ear fraying feedback, and by the former, I mean absolutely excelling in every department, full stop. There are many moments on the album that evoke complex, and often contradictory emotions, such as bloody panic and swooning affection, like on “I Want You To Suffer,” which sounds like the Shangri Las performing at the gruesome climax of a Dario Argento film. A similar juxtaposition between pensive dread and the consummate validation screams to life on “Speaking from Above,” as well as on the ambivalent, tepid composure and fluctuating verve of the albums title track. The alienation continues on the spinning and syncopated “Lucifer Stand” which sounds like the type of song John Carpenter would have written for a Supremes’ bio pick, if something so dark and wonderful could ever be possible. There are moments approaching sanity on
What’s Tonight to Eternity? as well, like on closer “Heavy Metal” which proceeds with some perfect Preoccupations-esque chords, serving as a raft for a swinging Ronettes melody to dan upon, and opener “Plastic Raincoat,” which feels like an uncharacteristically lucid Peter Ivers penned deep cut. If Cindy Lee’s latest album has left me with one overriding impression that trumps all others, it is that eternity waits for no one. Enjoy this beauty while you can.
