Literary Pop Takes a Big Leap Forward with Kele Fleming's "World in Reverse"
Publicist: Heather Kitching
www.heatherkitching.com
Kele
Fleming began writing World in Reverse with the goal of creating a
sonic novel. By the time she was done, she had created a sonic Ulysses,
a series of vignettes that coalesce into a subtle social commentary.
The English Lit major and leader of the 90s pop band Hazel Motes had
previously combined her talents in music and text on her 2004 album
songs from the tinforest, a collection of her poetry set to music. Now
the woman The Province said “might have the most original songwriting
style in Vancouver” fuses the disciplines more fully – joining her
highly literate lyrics, idiosyncratic compositions and ambitious
artistic vision into a cohesive body of work that, as the title
suggests, reflects on a feeling of life in regression.
Some songs are about lives ending just as they should be blossoming.
Some are about the earth itself decaying through environmental damage.
Others are about love affairs or life plans doing 180 degree turns.
What makes the work stand out from other songs on similar topics is
Fleming’s singular voice as a songwriter. So talented is she that
World’s lyric sheet alone reads like a work of starkly hard-hitting
poetry. There’s no mistaking that “Crowsnest” and “Inescapable Jesus”
are about murdered women – although the word is never uttered - or that
“The Ladder” and “World in Reverse” are about environmental
destruction. For all the force of the songwriting, though, World is
anything but whiney. The lyrics come to life through Fleming’s quirky
musical sensibilities and range as a vocalist. Possessed of a powerful
soprano that, in its lower registers, evokes Grace Slick or Debbie
Harry, Fleming can sweep from an angry growl to an ethereal high to a
plaintive almost-whisper in seconds. Her melodies take unexpected
twists and turns, and her creative phrasing fits the lyrics seamlessly
inside them. And Gen Xers will appreciate the nods to 80s and 90s
alternative pop in the production values. In fact, the occasional
juxtaposition of serious subject matter against 80s-like elements is
one of the album’s many peculiarly alluring qualities.