It’s appropriate that this review follows that of Hounds of Love, because parts of God’s Money sound like they might have been taken from Kate Bush’s audio sketchpad—quirky (there’s that word again) little ideas and snippets, vocal lines that sound like they could be the seeds of elaborate songs, sung by a voice similar in tone and manner to Bush’s. I downloaded this album from eMusic because of a rave review by eMusic’s Yancey Strickler which appeared on the site’s front page for what seemed like months. The first sentence of the review is “Warning: this record is not for everyone,” which naturally piqued my interest, because my taste definitely leans toward the eccentric, and I finally gave in to Strickler’s sales pitch. Since the review gives a good detailed description of the music, I’ll just give my opinion without making much effort to describe it. You can hear samples along with the review on the eMusic page.

I certainly got as much eccentric as I wanted here. The album is, in fact, downright weird. That’s not a bad thing, but unfortunately a certain amount of it is merely weird. There are some great moments: in particular, the two most fully developed tracks (“songs” is not entirely applicable), “Egowar” and “Before My Voice Fails,” are nothing short of enchanting (although it took several hearings for me to arrive at that opinion). But some of the shorter tracks just don’t make that much of an impression ("Untitled (Piano)," a very beautiful little instrumental, is an exception). Overall, the effect, despite the fact that the album is essentially one long piece, is of a series of sometimes wonderful fragments. It’s not something I’ll listen to very often, but I’m glad to have it. And I won’t be surprised if it continues to grow on me. I haven’t heard it for a week or so now and I have a yen to hear it again.

(I’m abandoning the practice of assigning ratings. It makes me feel like too much of a jerk.)

Here’s that eMusic link again.