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reviews Rockpile magazine A longtime acoustic solo regular, Philadelphia songwriter Cynthia Mason’s debut CD features a full backing band. Think Cat Power, Ida, but not. Mason’s writing rules by force of nuance and mood rather than irksome hooks. Emotive and genuinely touching, this is the voice of an embrace, as well as a tear. Amazing. (Spiderwoman)
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Philadelphia
City Paper “...While
songwriting can be a potentially frustrating waiting game, fortunately
Mason’s been patient, honing her share of gems. Her early work
was recorded solo on her home four-track and released on two cassettes—Untitled
(1996) and Critical Neighborhood Map (1998)—on her label, Spiderwoman
Records. She was pretty wary about working with other musicians...However,
once she started hanging out at Soundgun Studio at the behest of
one of the owners, her friend Edan Cohen, Mason changed her tune...Whatever
diffidence she once felt toward adding other players, you’ll
find few traces of it now. The resulting self-titled, Cohen-produced
album is an exquisitely arranged affair, from the precise folk-rock
backing on “Measure” to the unsettled string section on
“Wit’s End”...Live the songs take on yet another
new life. Among the musicians recruited for the album was Chris
Powell, who in turn introduced Mason to Larry Brown and
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Philadelphia
City Paper Creepiest chamber pop songstress (and we mean this in a good way)... The year is 1967. The occasionally sunlit Velvet Underground With Nico LP is released, the ultimate exercise in insect-paranoid noir rock with a viola and a German girl singer. That same year on the other side of New York City, Joni Mitchell plans her dusky chamber folk debut Song For A Seagull and the cooly complex lyricism behind "Night in the City" and "Nathan la Franeer." Cynthia G. Mason is all THAT and a bag of chipped shoulders. With Grace Kelly-esque grace and Nico-like allure, Mason - on her eponymous debut CD (Spiderwoman) - intones intricately detailed songs for her seagulls like the aptly titled "Subtle Things" and "Measure."
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Philadelphia Weekly
“...More than just a means to distribute her tapes of 4-track recordings, Spiderwoman has served as an effective tool in carving out a personalized space for her music, words and thoughts...Although she’s a female singer/songwriter—a figure very much in the current commercial zeitgeist—Mason doesn’t play folk ditties or novelty tunes. Her songs are dark and often anguished, strolling paths cleared by Kristin Hersh and Cat Power. Mason’s lyrics build fuzzy emotional pictures with asymmetrical images (“They fed them legends like flies/A selfish mourning forged a hostile divide”) And occasionally zero in with uncanny precision (“It’s easier to humor your sense of obligation/Than to borrow what you took.”). Her sound is somber, made all the more stark by the leftover space surrounding the skeleton of Mason alone with her five-string guitar...”
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Fringe Benefit:
Music: Cynthia Mason. Philadelphian Mason uses the same foursquare guitar strumming and pensive melodies favored by singer-songwriters everywhere. Yet she somehow coaxes individual things from them-- a dissonance that creeps into the edges of her chords, an anger that lurks, barely disguised, beneath her melodies.
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Labyrinth:
The Philadelphia Women's Newspaper ..."Another woman who is demanding our attention is local artist Cynthia Mason, who with an acoustic guitar and her voice alone is able to convey quite a bit of emotion on her self-produced debut Memento Mori (Spiderwoman Records). Though this was actually put together two years ago, Cynthia is often found playing around Philadelphia, and this is a great introduction to her work, even now. This seems like a pretty cathartic work for both the performer and the listener. Cynthia bellows and whispers words of pain, anger, remorse, and (hopefully) healing; words about love, loss, hope and fear echo throughout her music, backed by a sparse acoustic guitar. This effect forces the words to resonate in the listener's head much more than the usual easily digestible pop. Cynthia Mason
is somewhere around the early Liz Phair stage, crafting good songs,
but still filled with a lot of anger without other music to tone
this down a bit, not that this is necessarily the route she wants
to go down. But her work may be almost too angry for most people
to consume without some keyboards or drums to connect with. |
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Mole 'Zine Cynthia Mason: Memento Mori (Spiderwoman Records) Solo woman with guitar grabs up a fistful of minor key chords & notes & off-kilter breathy phrasings to spice up introspective downer tales. "Disappoint Me" recalls Suzanne Vega's breathy emphasis & tone, but "Dying Songs for Walking" pulls out vivid chorus that excites unrequited love/hate. Fine writing, subtle delivery, & unusual rhythmic insistence of the playing (especially on "Ledge") draws you into this quiet world. Cynthia Mason: Critical Neighborhood Map (Spiderwoman Records, Box 15993, Philadelphia, PA 19103) Vocal overdubs and complexity to the low-key thoughtfulness & questioning of songs that continue the downer themes of earlier Memento Mori tape. Songs seem to focus more on negative observations about world outside the emotions- the murder & robbery scenes of "Voyeurs", daily life on "March 29th" and the impatient waiting for "The Critic" that becomes an impatience with herself for waiting. Rhythmic playing & intense vocal accents spark "West Philly" with life. An interesting view of her community. |
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Paintings sale from New York |