Gileah

Item: Songs for Late at Night
Author: Lisa Reid

Songs for Late at Night

(2000)

Reviewed by Lisa Reid

Discogs Bandcamp

Label independentThe Phantom Tollbooth2000

acoustic folk indie pop

This is a very appropriately titled album. If you're in the market for artistic lullabies, this is the CD for you.

It's difficult to tell whether this spare set of songs is done by Gileah, a band, or Gileah, a one-named single artist (a la Prince or Madonna), though both the CD and the web site hint at the latter without stating it overtly. Either way, the songs, individually and together, are lovely. Gileah lists Over the Rhine and Innocence Mission as influences, and that much is easy to discern. Lead vocals evoke a certain sense of Karin Bergquist, though without any of Bergquist's trademark sultriness.

Each song is done exceedingly simply, with vocals and sonically sparse instrumentation -- piano only, acoustic guitar only, various other unnamed instruments used alone, or even a cappella in the case of "Alec." In only two tracks, "N.K. and L.N." and "Maybe You're Born With It," is any other vocalist used.

Lyrics are intentionally obscure, as in the case of "Tag You're It," quoted in its entirety directly from the CD insert, including random capitalization, below:

you have me knotted. truth: i'm surprised by it. truth: I don't know if
that is where I need to be. you have me knotted. tied and unsure of what to
do. truth: I will leave it up to you. will you have me?

The CD as a whole is the auditory equivalent of a shoulder rub: warm and relaxing. Complaints? The vocals are a bit higher in the mix in places than perhaps they should be. But there's no need to pick apart something which is essentially well-done and completely independent to boot. Gileah has put out a very nice CD, and given an actual production budget, could probably produce an album rivaling those of its heroes.