Mariana Bell— Visions of Caroline

This is one of three reviews of Mariana Bell’s recorded works, written at an earlier time and in a different headspace.  The words still hold weight, though, and with the release of Bell’s first recordings since 2013 (this year’s Uncanny Valley), this will help tell the story of her musical progression over the years (and, trust me, there has been progress).  This was first posted in 2013, the year of The Caroline EP‘s release.  Still available from cdBaby as a download or on CD.  Let us begin:

Mariana Bell is killing me. She puts out an album every couple of years, this time just a five-song EP, and impresses me with her progress each time and here she is going off and getting married and I’m not sure I’m okay with it. I await each release with an anxiety which probably should not be there, almost as if I really needed a fresh infusion of Bell-Pop (she is a bit more Pop than most I hear these days) and I think I’m a bit afraid that maybe her dynamics might be thrown off a bit. I’m sure I would be just as worried had she chosen to take a high pressure position with a Fortune 500 corporation or had she decided to have a baby (which I expect next, truth be told) because I am a self-admitted basket case when it comes to my music, which is any music so deeply ingrained in me that it has become part of my DNA. Book and Push are ingrained already. I am preparing a ceremony for the induction of The Caroline EP as I type.

Sometime over the past couple of years, Bell came up with this idea of writing music around the story of a woman named Caroline. She worked on it over a period of over a year, honing the songs until they held the feelings she wanted to convey— the musical pictures, if you will. I watched and listened and waited. The early videos of “Caroline” showed great promise though you could tell it was a work in progress. The videos were uploaded early 2012 and the versions were a bit more animated (faster) than they were to be on the studio version. There is even a video recorded June of last year of Bell and Ari Hest performing what would be the final arrangement of the song at Rockwood Music Hall in New York (Hest guests on the EP). There was something about the voices…..

There is still something about the voices. When I first heard the EP, they carried me away. In fact, I have yet to follow the storyline, the voices being my prime focus. Lyrics? Not necessary at this point. I will get there, I know, but each time I hear “Caroline” and “You Would That” (duet with Molly Rogers, a singer I need to research) and the other songs, I float away. Especially “Caroline.” I woke up this morning swearing I had heard the song before and double-checked Bell’s earlier albums but could not find it. I wanted to. It was so familiar when I heard it last night and this morning that the feeling would not stop. Perhaps I watched the videos a few times when they were uploaded. Maybe Bell visited me in a dream or maybe we know one another from a previous life. All I really know is that I want to hear the song over and over, that “repeat” thing I always bust other peoples’ chops about when they play a song ad infinitum and drive me crazy. I know now how they feel, an insatiable desire to listen until they feel at least a mite sated. But I’m not yet. Not sated. Not even close. It is a beautiful song and brings tears to my eyes— and I’m not even sure it is a sad song at all. Maybe what I am feeling is not sadness. Perhaps I am just feeling reflective. Good songs do that to me sometimes.

You know, sometimes I feel a bit lonely, especially when it comes to music. I discovered Bell (well, found her, anyway) a number of years ago and I’ve tried to tell people, but I’m not sure they’re listening. Not to me, anyway. Which is sad. There is so much outstanding music these days, “The Caroline EP” and Bell’s other albums included, it just seems a waste to not search it out. You obviously have a computer or one of them phone thingies. You know how to do a search. The name is Mariana Bell. The album is “The Caroline EP”. It isn’t hard. Then, if we ever have a chance to meet, we will have something to talk about. It would be a door to an opportunity for us both. Music this good is meant to be shared.