Jane Weaver – Like An Aspen Leaf / Seven Day Smile / Cherlokalate

Fire

Having illuminatingly reissued 2010’s transitional The Fallen By Watch Bird in expanded form and delivered an archival vinyl outing of 2011’s Intiaani Kesä soundtrack for Record Store Day earlier this year, Fire’s ongoing curatorial campaign for Jane Weaver’s catalogue reaches back further and wider with the simultaneous reappearance of her earliest three self-billed long-form releases.

Although more organically earthbound and less sonically expansive overall, this triumvirate of nascent offerings doesn’t simply dispense thin sketchy outlines for Weaver’s latter-day Technicolored presentations. Neither is there a straightforward alignment with the contemporaneous acid-folk scene of the early 2000s.

2002’s slender but not insubstantial seven-part Like An Aspen Leaf mini-LP is a solid scene-setter. Discreetly assisted in places by members of Elbow and Voice Of The Seven Woods as well as Andy Votel, this is a languid and occasionally bewitching collection.

Subtly shifting between Tindersticks-like tenderness (“Bow & Arrow, Ball Of String” and “The Heart That Buckled You”); softened echoes of PJ Harvey’s Dry-period acoustic explorations (“A Bird Stole The Gold”); and hints of orchestral-mode Sandy Denny (“Why Don’t You Smile”), this aperitif affair acts an alluring vehicle for Weaver’s voice and songcraft.

2006’s regular-sized Seven Day Smile moves things forward somewhat imperceptibly yet assuredly, this time with borrowed players from Doves joining Votel in the background assistance. Narratively wound around tales of “modern day kitchen sink dramas”, the ten gathered tracks stretch Weaver’s sound world without overloading it.

Hence, we’ve moved mesmerically through hazy Pink Floydian pastoral psychedelia (“Slow Song”); Phil Spector-goes-quietly-shoegaze (the title track); prowling low-slung Lush-indebted ethereality (“Starglow”); spartan campfire closeness (“The Sink” and “Once You’d Given Me Up”); space-age cowgirl blissfulness (“In Summer”); and electro-acoustic Radiophonic Workshopisms (“Gutter Girl”).

2007’s Cherlokalate completes the triptych, with even greater confidence and a far looser conceptual framing.

Sliding through evocative baroque environs (“It’s Only Pastures” and “Shoulder Seasons”); cymbal-splashing psych-rock (“The Pain”); ambling unplugged intimacy (“Is Everyone Happy?”); Linda Perhacs-imbued astral-plane crossing (“Oh You Lucky Ones”); and Velvet Underground-meets-primordial-Cocteau Twins edginess (“Outro”), the collection imaginatively opens / opened the doors to The Fallen By Watch Bird era and beyond.

Whilst the more circuitous approaches spread across this carefully reupholstered trio may be a tad harder to latch on to, for those who originally picked up Jane Weaver’s trail a couple of long-players later, considerate listening rewardingly reveals low-key — yet not lightweight — historical charms.

-Adrian-