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Love Spirals Downwards
Ardor

Projekt Records

Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

Even if the rest of the album was substandard, Ardor would still be a near masterpiece thanks only to the presence of "Write in Water." Often copied but never quite surpassed, the song's languid guitar strums, celestial effects washes, and gorgeously bittersweet vocals epitomize the very best of the '90s ethereal scene. There's plenty more to Love Spirals Downwards' second album than "Write in Water" though. Less overtly gothic than their debut, Ardor sees the group exploring a little of everything, from shimmering pop to sleepy ambient, all within the context of Ryan Lum's languorous instrumentation and Suzanne Perry's lilting soprano. "Will You Fade" begins the album with blissful, hypnotic strums, then "Sidhe," written by Projekt label owner and Black Tape for a Blue Girl founder Sam Rosenthal, answers the first song's question by fading into bleary guitar drones. While "Avincenna" and "I Could Find It Only by Chance" are more than melancholy enough for goth fans, Lum and Perry are less dark than wistful. "Subsequently" is delicacy embodied, gossamer vocals and elegantly finger-picked chords adrift in clouds of sustain, and "Kykeon" approaches the sublime in its restrained pace, the silences between the chords as potent as the tones themselves. A second vocalist, Jennifer Wilde (now of Liquid State), appears on two tracks: the lovely "Depression Glass" and the sleepy ambient composition "Sunset Bell," offering a different vocal timbre, but no shortage of haunting beauty. "Tear Love from My Mind" finishes the album with dreamlike washes of guitar and subtle vocal harmonies; especially clear on this remastered edition, the song's production is exquisite, a foreshadowing of the recording techniques Lum would later explore with Lovespirals. This reissue also features several bonus tracks; besides the instrumental mix of "I Could Find It" and an extra delicate live recording of "Write in Water," longtime fans will be thrilled to hear "Oisin and Niam." Written during the Ardor sessions but never actually included on the album, it's a slightly lighter-feeling piece, thanks to an almost upbeat rhythm beneath the layers of drifting guitar. Delirious and beautiful, but never cloying or twee, Ardor is perhaps Love Spirals Downwards' magnum opus. Ethereal fans are lucky to have it available again.