The Australian-Mexican duo revels in ballad pathos.
Nancy and Lee, Isobel and Mark, Kylie and Nick – the comparisons are obvious. However, the age difference between Nick Cave’s longtime companion Mick Harvey and the artist Amanda Acevedo is significantly larger – which gives some of the songs on PHANTASMAGORIA IN BLUE a funny aftertaste.
After all: Acevedo does not correspond to the cliché of blond innocence. The Mexican sounds cool and seductive. Harvey, on the other hand, whispers in baritone depths or languishes with a trembling voice, while the duo dedicates themselves to selected covers from Tim Buckley to Sibylle Baier to the Spaniard Luis Aduardo Aute.
Unfortunately, Harvey and Acevedo hardly get out of the orchestrally decorated ballad mode. Especially in the Sinatra/Hazlewood number “Indian Summer” and in “The Blue Unicorn” by the Cuban Silvio Rodríguez, the level of kitsch is very high. And some stylish arrangements and atmospheric moments like “Milk & Honey” by Jackson C. Frank or Buckley’s “Phantasmagoria in 2” don’t make up for the fact that this album is more of a phantasmagoria in lard.