Recipes are wonderful thing. Whether created out of thin air or handed down the generations, they provide the means to achieve consistency in your culinary adventures. You might wonder, however, what that has to do with music. The answer is to be found in Lexi Weege’s album “Virgin” for, with more than a nod to the ways of the past, she has created a musical meal that will certainly bring pleasure to the discerning palate.
Her voice is never less than theatrical and her attitude never less than modern but those old fashioned values like competence and true style soon make their presence known. Her songs, driven always by an insistent verging on manic piano, are fine examples of the externalisation of emotion and, from the playful, fifties feel that pervades “Summer Everyday” to the angst powered “Cheap Bravery”, Lexi Weege lyrically prowls the relationship jungle like a tiger with an early lunch on her mind.
However, it is the smoky eloquence that she brings to “The Ballad of Buckeye Slim” that provides the proof that she is someone both at ease with her talent yet unafraid to show what really makes her heart beat with the gleeful malevolence that underpins “Lovesick woman” reinforcing that opinion by effectively using the currency of emotional damage to pay the fare for the trip to show tunes territory.
With the confidence to throw her all into the circus ring of theatricality, Lexi Weege stamps the mark of a true performer on to “Virgin” and, as a further nod to the ways of the past, her album was even recorded live to tape so it’s old school values all the way. Now, I wonder what’s for dessert?
Available from Bandcamp.