VERA SOLA - Peacemaker LP (colour vinyl)

Limited edition oxblood red colour vinyl. Foil-printed sleeve.

Includes 24-pag booklet with lyrics.

Highly recommended.

The first thing that stands out about Peacemaker is its obvious debt to Tom Waits. Sola has a similar penchant for old-timey sounds, for quiet piano ballads with a darker side (specifically "Is That You?", about a friend who passed away that the narrator still sees everywhere, reaching out and touching strangers who she thinks are wearing his old jacket), and rattling percussion straight out of Tom's 80s Island era. But it never feels derivative, Sola takes that influence and turns it into something distinctly her own. The Waitsian elements are combined with a haunted Western atmosphere, this is the sound of smoky bars and deserted motels on a lonely road in the middle of nowhere, populated by manipulative men who get their just deserts at the hands of Sola's "instument of war".