All My CDs, pt 41: Vera Causa

Vera Causa - Faith and the Muse

Shortly after getting Annwyn, Beneath the Waves, I found out about Vera Causa from the band's Myspace page (a fact which probably shows my age all on its own). I liked the few sample tracks I found there, so I decided to get that one next.

If you're getting acquainted with an established band and wondering where to start, I recommend getting an album like this one. Vera Causa is a two-disk collection of assorted covers, alternative takes, live performances, rarities and remixes from the band's entire repertoire up to that point. Thus, it served to showcase the full range of their styles, from A Winter Wassail (which sounds like it could have been played at an ancient Pagan Yule feast) to techno remixes complete with all the requisite unts-untsing.

As for those remixes, I can't say I'm too fond of them myself. If anything, they're often less interesting than the originals, having smoothed out some of the sonic peaks and valleys into a more homogeneous monotone. They're all clustered into the second half of the second disk - a fact which very well facilitates skipping the whole lot. I often do.

But everything else on the album is amazing. Among the live performances is a half-a-capella All Lovers Lost which convinced me that lead singer Monica Richards leads the way among my favorite vocalists. Her voice is also beautifully showcased in the gorgeous acoustic version of Annwyn, Beneath the Waves - a song I had found lukewarm in its electrified form. Their cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill is what compelled me to buy the album in the first place; this version faithfully copies the original, but in a personalized style that makes it at once completely new.

Since Vera Causa is essentially a collection of disparate pieces, a scattershot sample of miscellany, it's hard to characterize it as a whole. Any description of the album will boil down to a description of Faith and the Muse, which is not an easy band to describe. They're gothic, in the sense of black lace and dusky acoustic guitar. They're theatric, in the sense of costumery and epic lore. They're mythic, but modern,  but unstuck in time. Vera Causa is a good synopsis of all that complexity, with no pressure to include everything but including at least a representative.

Next: Elyria