Bemydelay — Hazy Light

“Hazy Light” is a collection of bleak to laid-back-yet-still- gloomy female led folk songs. The nine tracks presented here are mainly based  around melancholic yet harmonic acostic guitar plucking ‘n’ strumming, and Marcella Riccardi’s (Blake/e/e/e, Franklin Delano, Massimo Volume) wordy, pretty yet mainly stark voice. There is some minimal backing on a few track, but mainly this is very much a guitar & voice affair.

Marcella Riccardi is Italian singer, songwriter & guitarist, who now seemingly resides in Chicago. She has been musical active since the early 2000’s, with slow paced folk/ rock to psychedelic  & Alt-country  sound of  Franklin Delano, and dub meets folk project Blake/e/e/e. Bemydelay is Riccardi's solo project- it started in 2011 with the release of “ToTheOtherSide∆” ( also on Italy’s Boring Machines), this first release focused  more on cosmic themed guitar loops ‘n’ delay effects & vocal textures. “Hazy Light” is the projects second release.

The nine tracks offered up here are  fairly standard singer/ song writer  in their structure/ unfold, with really little experimental edges to them. Yet each track is memorable, and rewarding in it’s own right- the tracks move nicely between stark & sad earthy English folk, lazy & down-beat US tinged country folk, and the odd dart into more sad & sombre Spanish tinged & sang folk.

I can’t really recall the last time I enjoyed a more straight forward female based singer/song-writer’s work, such as this - as sadly they are often  unoriginal, contrived &  more than a little clichéd. But I must say I thoroughly enjoyed “Hazy Light”, as each of the nine tracks are varied, well-written, tuneful,  and often emotional (but never contrived) examples of good old honest song-writing.