Sister

Description

Mina Tindle's third album, Sister, is populated with all kinds of mythical creatures: parade lions, lovers turned cannibals, kings, mermaids, and women with wings. Like any great storyteller, she conveys her tale with fragile wisdom, revealing essential truths about the dangers and savagery that dwell in the human heart. Every moment is magnified by her enchanting vocal work – a gift she has showcased during her recordings and tours as a singer for The National. Sister transports us, being both incredibly dreamlike and deeply evocative. Mina Tindle is the project of Parisian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Pauline De Lassus. Largely recorded in New York with producer Thomas Bartlett (Yoko Ono, Florence + the Machine), the album's elegant details balance the strange magic of the songs with fierce emotional realism. "Give a Little Love," written and produced by Sufjan Stevens, channels an intense longing, its sweet melancholy elevated by Stevens' warm backing vocals. On "Belle Pénitence," she shares a tender love letter with her husband (Bryce Dessner of The National), distorting the charming atmosphere with images of fantastically brutal hunting delivered in her native language. On "Lions" and its shimmering grooves, Pauline offers compassionate encouragement in the face of self-doubt. After the gloriously tentacular "Tryptique," co-written with Bryce Dessner, the album concludes with a stripped-down cover of Lhasa De Sela's "Is Anything Wrong." Sister achieves a powerful complexity, presenting her most imaginative collection of songs to date while fully embracing the truth, even when it is sometimes painful.