Marla & David Celia – Indistinct Chatter
Elite Records – 22 October 2021
A follow-up to their 2018 debut Daydreamers, Marla and David Celia‘s Indistinct Chatter was recorded while locked in a German studio during curfew hours; this again subtly showcases their harmonies and intricate arrangements. The opening track, Clowns Everywhere, is a case in point, a lyric about corporate greed and today’s disposable culture (“they’re tossing goods into the dumpsters/Making room on shelves for profit we can’t use”) and suggesting that giving might be better than taking if the world’s to survive ensconced within a shapeshifting melody line that carries hints of 60s psychedelia in its midsection.
Anchored by a Spector-like drum beat and strummed chords, What If? continues to mine those psychedelic veins sieved through a hypnotic Eastern sway in a dream of world peace. David then takes the lead for the keyboards-backed soaring croon of Paranoia vs Miracles that returns to the theme of favouring quantity over quality, reminding that “in nature, things are born with a purpose then they die/Cause we cannot live forever/So enjoy and be grateful it’s the answer to the question/Of how we should treat one another”.
Opening with Spanish guitar notes before taking up what in their terms is a positively funky rhythm, Mama Nature initially continues with that heady summery 70s vibe before breaking out in a noisy, discordant bridge that musically captures the strife caused by humanity against mother nature.
A slow walking beat and acoustic strum carry along Goodbye, another number addressing mindless disposability and the blinkered march of progress (“Goodbye all you crooked houses, each with their own charm/Just knock ‘em down and turn ‘em around into soldiers on the line/Goodbye to small businesses, you’re cut off at the hand/These machines are faster and deliver on demand”) in a world where it’s quicker to replace than to mend as we bid “Goodbye to the eyes that see the world beyond a screen”.
By way of a change of style and pace, Marla sings in Spanish on the gently strummed Mexicali love song Cuenta Conmigo (Count On Me). The tempo picks up with the percussive clop of Same Train, a slightly Lennon-flavoured observation of the 9 to 5 routine in thrall to the man and of not leaving it too late to seek your own dreams.
Another Magical Mystery Tour era Beatles-like strum, Colours of the Rainbow is basically a love letter to being one with nature, ringing the changes again while sustaining that same touchstone (it even mentions Ringo) and filtering in a splash of Nilsson eccentricity, the pair trading lines with the playful, pizzicato bluesy rhythm Struggling with the Yin-Yang and its critique of capitalism (“There was a time when people first lived on these foreign lands/When things got hard discovered ways to heal their minds with plants/We take 3000 years of theories and just throw them away/Or is it that they don’t make richer people richer everyday”) and the constant pressure to follow the trends (“it’s time to be distracted again/They call it A.D.D. or something that the doctor gives a name/And they make the cure so hard to get”).
Sung by Marla, Little Bird has more of an old school acoustic jazz feel, flowing naturally into David’s fingerpicked resonant guitar Childhood Dream that carries us back to the late 60s days of CS&N, The Young Rascals and David Ackles on a call to hold tight to your inner child as the years roll by.
Guitar twang and undulating Latin rhythm meet on the duetting Love Of Life finale, leaving on an orchestral sweep and a reminder that while you may struggle to keep the boat afloat as the river rushes on, “the love of life will take the wheel and steer” and that “Just when you think that it’s gone/It comes up behind you with sunshine at dawn”. They never labour the points they’re making, but the sentiments are always there in the hum, the album title a reminder that often the whisper is far more effective than the scream.
Order via Bandcamp: https://marladavidcelia.bandcamp.com/album/indistinct-chatter