This album by Josephine Foster, This Coming Gladness (2010), has been on my queue for a little while. I’d seen some reviews of her music in the past week that got me more intrigued. Then upon seeing the description of this album on Josephine Foster’s Bandcamp page, I knew I needed to listen to this one tonight. According to the Bandcamp listing for this album, the music is a combination of folk rock and psych rock, and Foster’s voice is compared to Tim Buckley, who is one of my favorite artists of all time. I’m pretty excited to listen to this album, so with that said, I’m going to jump on into the music.
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” starts out with some warm, mellow chords from a guitar, while a distant guitar adds some haunting accentuations. Oh wow, Foster’s voice comes in and I can understand the comparisons with Tim Buckley. The track so far sort of reminds me of Tim Buckley’s Lorca (1970). The combination of rumbling percussion and sound effects almost remind me of some sort of haunted and increasingly psychedelic version of Valerie June’s The Order of Time (2017). Wow, I’m hooked into this album already. This sounds like something you that you might hear from a distance coming from an old woman’s forgotten home deep in an old forest that some say is inhabited by a wise medicine woman, while others say it is inhabited by a witch. Wow, great track, and I’m excited to hear more.
Oh wow, “The Lap of Your Lust” starts out with some very warm chords from some guitars, and soon by Foster’s vocals. Wow, the tune seems to develop a sort of dark and mellow, psychedelic dissonance that almost feels like Tim Buckley’s Lorca (1970) meets the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star”. I really dig the hollowness and syncopation of the drums in the track. The overall sound is inviting with a heavy dose of mystique, as though the wise medicine woman or witch is beckoning you towards her abode. Oh wow, Foster’s voice wanders about in a way that feels like a mellow vocal jam of some sort. I’m reminded a bit of Diane Cluck as well, who is another modern folksy singer/songwriter that I’ve listened to recently. I really dig the free-flowing nature of the guitar work at the end of the track that builds and releases tension in a really dissonant yet sweet manner. Great track.
Oh wow, “Lullaby to All” starts out with a mellow bluesy piano and some vocals that seem to match that style. Oh wow, the tune picks up to a tempo that feels like a classic blues rock song, yet the notes played by the guitar and piano are extremely dissonant and filled with tri-tones. Foster’s vocals continue on as though there’s no dissonance in the track at all. Oh wow, the rest of the instrumentation but the piano and Foster’s vocals drop away, and the tune loses its dissonance and becomes even sweeter for resolving the tension built up in the track. Super interesting track.
“I Love You & the Springtime Blues” begins with some light and sweet acoustic guitar chords with some sweet and mellow vocals from Foster. Oh wow, I really dig the drums in the track. The drums almost have a sort of snapping during a poetry slam type of feel, and somehow sweeten the track even more. Oh wow, there’s some distant, distorted, bright, and warm guitar work that comes in from the right that almost sound like a psychedelic whale song of some sort. The track has really picked up a lot of momentum by the latter half of the track. Wow, great tune.
“All I Wanted Was the Moon” starts out with some warm, swishing, clean electric guitar chords that seem to put the vision of light ripples on the reflection of the full moon in a calm ocean bay into musical form. Oh wow, the distant, distorted electric guitar with a bit of feedback comes into this track, bringing a mellow psychedelia with it. Holy smokes, a super flavorful harmonica comes in and the momentum of the song seems to climb higher and higher. Holy smokes, the guitar lick that introduces the jam near the end of the track is super flavorful, and has somehow hooked me in even further into the track. Wow, great track.
“Waltz of Green” starts out with a mellow harp alongside Foster’s vocals, giving the tune a sound that feels like she’s guiding you through moonlit waterways of Europe. Wow, I’m really digging this track right now. It almost feels like a mellow lullaby of some sort. Holy smokes, an acoustic guitar joins in and seems to develop the lines from the harp such that there’s a super sweet acoustic jam between the two instruments. Holy smokes, a distorted electric guitar and a big bass drum come in, making the soundscape feel increasingly psychedelic. Oh wow, I really dig the slow tremelo on the electric guitar, which really reminds me of some of the earliest rock and roll guitarists such as Link Wray. Wow, awesome track.
“Sim Nao” begins with some mellow acoustic guitar, which is soon joined by a gentle, airy swing from the drums with gentle cymbals and deep rumblings from the kick drums. Oh wow, I really dig the distorted electric guitar in this track, which almost seems to be guiding you through the musical river that Foster is creating with her voice, guitar, and drums. The electric guitar almost even has some raga flavors to its playing that I’m really digging. Wow, great track.
“Second Sight” begins with some warm and mellow acoustic guitar, and is soon joined by a big, distant rumbling of drums. I’m not sure if there’s a bass guitar in the track or if it’s just the bass notes from the acoustic guitar, but I’m really digging the overall sound. Holy smokes, a dissonant feedback comes into the song for a moment, providing a nice contrast to the warm flavors with some sharpness. Oh wow, the soundscape seems to evoke an old, haunted ship sailing through foggy waters in the middle of the night. Wow, another great tune.
“A Thimbleful of Milk” begins with some warm acoustic guitar that has a sort of rambling sound that I tend to associate with folk music. Oh wow, the tone of Foster’s vocals have a sound that feels like the narrative of a painter and/or a poet, continually adding and building up something greater in the process. Wow, super sweet track.
“Indelible Rainbows” begins with some warm electric guitar on both sides of the soundscape, while a deep kick drum seems to gently move the tune along from underneath. This track feels incredibly sweet, as though Foster is gradually resolving and releasing any tension built up in the album. Oh wow, there are some really interesting spacey sound effects that sound as though you’re listening to a psychedelic whale song from space through a fan of some sort. Wow, great track and a great way to finish the listening experience of this album.
Holy smokes, this album is great. The haunting nature throughout much of the album in both the instrumentation and Foster’s vocals do remind me of Tim Buckley. I really dig that there seemed to be an evolution in and between all of the songs on the album. It didn’t feel as though there was a single repeated measure throughout; may or may not be true, but it certainly adds to the mystique of the album. I’m reminded a bit of Diane Cluck in that same vein, as the music I’ve heard from her seemed to continually evolve throughout the listening experience. The album is sweet, dissonant, haunting, and mystical with Fosters use of folk, psychedelia, and singer/songwriter elements. If you’re into freak folk or folk music with a dark tone, you might want to consider checking out this album. If you do decide to give this album a listen, I sincerely do hope that you enjoy the listening experience at least as much as I did.
-A