Splendid E-Zine June 13, 2003 Review of Lys Guillorn S/T CD by Theodore Defosse   This Danbury, CT singer's name is pronounced "Liss Guh-LORN". Talking about her album is trickier; I wish I could limit myself to the first song. "Steel Pier" is like a lovelorn Sally Timms, breathing out dark country against sweet keyboard tinkling. Guillorn's voice is natural, expressive, and the perfect interpreter of her lyrics. The first track does not break new ground, and will recall many other songs in your collection, but they're all good. You get Iris Dement's sincerity, Liz Phair's swagger, and all the knowingness and wisdom of an Emmylou Harris or Timms. Guillorn's music glows less brightly when she tries to force her poetry ("The air smells like birthday candles on the inside of your hands") or cleverness (like a chorus that goes on about "semantics and gestures") into her songs. If she were a pop singer, it might matter less, but her music veers toward broad folkie epics that recall Kate Wolf, or dreamy alt-country that aspires to landscape paintings. These genres are so earthy that they almost beg to be paired with simple, honest vocals. Guillorn seldom delivers here, preferring abstractions and the eight-letter word of the day. Nonetheless, she sells her brand of Victorian goth-poetry well, and has a gift for the musical side of things. "Throne" is constructed as mightily as Cohen's "Joan of Arc", and there's a true sense of majesty and exaltation in her chorus of "ba"s. Other songs, such as "In Sleep" and "Weightless", use guitar like a fog machine, and help her words to spill out like a gauzy dreamscape.

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