masha qrella: analogies

Morr Music presents a new album by Masha Qrella, at long last. Indeed, it's been more than half a decade since the release of her last studio album Unsolved Remained, back in 2005. The only exception being Speak Low, a collection of beautifully-rendered Kurt Weill and Frederick Loewe cover songs, released in 2009. Still, the legend of this mythical new album kept growing with every step Masha made -- or didn't make, to be exact. Analogies is well worth the wait. In times of digital culture, of having every type of information permanently at our disposal, it seems to be rather easy to write great songs even if you haven't got the chops or an interesting biography to draw inspiration from. That said, it is still hugely advantageous to have some kind of musical story to tell -- a case in point on this album. It simply shows how important it is to stay true to your roots, to your musical path, no matter how many years it might take you to get somewhere. The resulting sound, the confidence, the virtuosity of composition at work in these songs, their post-rock leanings, shimmering folk layers and hymnal pop gestures, are clearly not just references to something found on the Internet. They are the result of actual experience, years and years dedicated to actually playing and breathing music. It's just obvious, and you can hear it in every note and every melody on this album. Ever since the Berlin party heydays of the early '90s, Masha Qrella (and also her band Mina) has been part of the city's musical avant-garde; yet at the same time, she kept an eye on that one thing which has always been the very core and heart of pop music: the song itself. Analogies is essentially her take on pop music, sitting perfectly between folk, indie rock, and all the huge radio anthems decades past.