For all those acquainted with her solo career it’s probably not difficult to admit that something necessarily changed since her first album (Without Why) a magnificent gem of introspectiveness to the second one (Stellular) where she displays some truly sophisticated dark pop geniality and a handful of anthemic songs.
Unexpectedly early this year when her loyal followers were preparing for another long hiatus in between studio albums Rose Elinor Dougall announced that she would be releasing a third album in April 2019. In good time she did it because A New Illusion actually is one of the most stunning albums of the year so far. A Priceless beauty.
A New Illusion is immensely poetic, delicate and detailed, even contemplative with a touch of bittersweet nostalgia that seems not only to to coin Rose Elinor Dougall compositions but actually became some sort of her trademark quality seal, not a common place and decidedly not a cliche.
A New Illusion will probably sound less produced and in some way a much simpler album when in comparison to Without Why and Stellullar. We might concede that the album is more organic, more stripped from studio tricks, but that is precisely the source its strength: less produced but masterfully arranged in such a way that sometimes it sounds that there are songs within a song such is the extreme beauty of many of the arrangements and the cinematic imagery displayed demanding a careful listening that turns into pure delight.
A New Illusion uncompromising beauty lasts for about 45 minutes and a handful of stunningly, gorgeous tracks such as That's Where The Trouble Started an authentic and mesmerizing ode to beautiful songwriting; Wordlessly the filigree, creative moment of the album. Stripped down poetry; Take What You Can Get a viciously addictive song, superbly nostalgic with a psych-krautrock feel. Magnificent composition, almost epic.
Too Much Of Not Enough sets another fine example of how good a songwriter/composer Dougall actually turned into. The song’s intro intense sonic imagery brings to mind while listening to that piano is the silence of early, hazy mornings by the seaside on a coastal city such like Brighton. Dougall’s vocals are beyond very good while the song slowly evolves keeping an essential tension among all instruments turning it in another high quality moment of the album.
Christina In Red is a song to remind us of the sonic experimentation that Dougall has been doing post “Without Why” with some superb saxophone brilliance and krautrock groove. Simple Things is another a pure gem of good taste and fine songwriting where everything seems on spot with the most beautiful piano layers ever on Dougall’s work resulting in an extraordinarily gorgeous song, a true appeal for new beginnings, new illusions.
INDIEVOTION SCORE: 9/10
