“Gentle,” a stunningly beautiful song, begins Naima Bock’s latest album, Below a Massive Dark Land. “Gentle” opens on a plucking note, throbbing beneath Bock’s evocative, sing-song vocals. As the song takes shape, it drifts on bagpipe-like textures leading into reeds and brass surfaces.
“He came into my life when / I was young / He came into my life when I was young / The time was still not right / I couldn’t see clear / I’d rather show him light / Than this world that’s seen through my eyes.”
The idea of “Gentle” is putting down roots. Bock shares, “It’s something I’d like to do one day but my tendency is to move, I find myself unable to feel fully at home in the world. I just feel like it would be difficult to bridge that gap”.
Written in isolation with her voice, guitar, and violin, Bock worked with Jack Ogborne and Joe Jones to bring the album to life. Musicians on the album include Clem Appleby (bass, backing vocals), Meitar Wegman (saxophone), Oscar De Guardians (backing vocals, electric guitar, harmonium), and Cassidy Hansen (drums, backing vocals), as well as a choir and horn and string sections.
Of the ten tracks on Below a Massive Dark Land, outstanding songs include “Kaley,” a bluesy song encompassing hints of rock and folk. Bock’s voice, reminiscent of Judy Collins, is sensitively gorgeous yet not overly emotive, giving the lyrics deliciously rounded tonal surfaces.
A personal favorite because of its almost bittersweet feel, “My Sweet Body” trembles with the awareness of growing older. Bock’s low and shadowy voice imbues the lyrics with elegant, slightly melancholic tones amid exotic-flavored strings.
The initial, medieval-like flow of “Takes One” shifts to a gypsy-like folk tune that allows Bock to turn her voice loose, eliciting soaring tendrils and radiant, gossamer timbres. Whereas “Moving” features a swaying folk melody highlighted by Bock’s hollow-shaped vocals, sad, wistful, and nostalgic simultaneously. A lone horn floats across the outro, infusing the harmonics with lonely colors.
The album closes with “Star,” a song that is a cross between a nursery rhyme and a lullaby. It is replete with soft, glowing harmonies and, at the end, a high-pitched crescendo. Starting with the sumptuously glorious “Gentle,” Below a Massive Dark Land captures an amalgamation of complex thoughts and emotions.
