LIZ JANES & CREATE(!) - Liz Janes & Create(!)

With two solo albums under her belt, a collaborator of rising star Sufjan Stevens and of the now-classic Black Heart Procession, Liz Janes returns to the market, while waiting for her career to hit a turning point, with a project that's ambitious (at least on paper): a mini-album of "public domain songs" rearranged with the help of a free-jazz collective, Create(!). Given that Janes can boast a truly beautiful voice, dense, warm, capable of enveloping the songs and lending them different registers, the whole affair becomes at least interesting.

It's precisely because of these premises that putting "Liz Janes & Create(!)" in the player leaves you disappointed. The ensemble proves extremely careful about paying homage and decidedly unwilling to take risks with invention, ending up perpetually stuck, delivering flawless performances that stop exactly there. Janes herself sings with grace, but the feeling that she sometimes merely accompanies the group isn't entirely far-fetched.

And yet it starts off with high hopes, with the best performance of the bunch, one of those that makes you think "well, these might be classic revisitations, but done with real flair." A shimmering guitar decisively marks the pace of "Lonesome Valley", banjo strokes blend tradition and elegance, a few tambourine hits and horn flourishes cut through the air in the finale, and Janes draws the whole valley close to her.

With "Be My Husband", instead, the alternation between relaxed and dark tones begins: the atmosphere turns tense and hushed, a raw guitar holds up the song and the voice is reduced to a grim whisper, while Create(!) work in the background with the odd hint of free-jazz drive. "All the Pretty Horses" follows the same line, arranged in the manner of "Desertshore", but stripped of the vital and deadly lifeblood of the songs chiseled by John Cale and delivered with lyrical/dramatic power by Nico. This is where the gap between form and substance mentioned at the outset shows most clearly.

The same feeling of listening to something lifeless recurs in "Jesus Is a Dying Bed-Maker", whose dreamy unfolding fails to captivate at all: which makes "Run, Old Geremiah/Keep Your Hand on the Plow" all the more welcome, in which the two traditionals are fused into a long gallop of handclaps and tambourines, gospel for male choir in the first half, brisk country for female voice and guitar in the second. "Careless Love" closes the record, a sweet declaration of love for love itself, carried by plucked guitar and evocative drums.

All that's left is to briefly sum things up (and tie up the loose ends). "Liz Janes & Create(!)" is a record that stays on the surface, only rarely managing to truly strike the listener. Despite its commendable execution, it's hard to recommend, ultimately amounting to a negligible work.

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30/04/2026