Clare & The Reasons The Movie by: Joseph Coscarelli Mon:27-Aug-07 Label: Frog Stand Year: 2007 WB rating 80 out of 100

The mystery behind the ever-arbitrary hype machine, about who and what will garner internet buzz, meets a conundrum in the case of Clare Muldaur. More and more frequently musicians sell out their first handfuls of show or gain a following on the strength of an EP or even scattered demos, yet as the release of Muldaur's The Movie (credited to Clare & The Reasons) approaches, mum's the word. Let us call her Brooklyn's best kept secret.  

As the underground so successfully becomes the over-ground thanks to hot shot bloggers and the magic of technological networking, there remains a few shortcuts to world wide (web) celebrity, each failing to ignite our potential heroine in limbo. The lineage is there – Clare's father Geoff Muldaur is a celebrated blues singer and producer from the folk revival in the Northeastern states. Next, consider the record's guests, including the inescapable Sufjan Stevens and composer Van Dyke Parks (recently of Joanna Newsom's Ys fame, not to mention his sidekick role to Brian Wilson). Couple innate hipster nepotism with some famous friends and you might expect the biggest internet sensation since Ms. Newsom or even Mr. Stevens himself. And yet somehow, the music world sleeps on it.  

Well, wake up.  

Clare & The Reasons' debut The Movie reveals itself as so much more than circumstantial hype, backing each talking point with equal parts substantive musical goodness. The Movie is both instantly gratifying and still slow to divulge its subtleties – a lush lesson in chamber pop spearheaded by an enchanting siren of a front-woman with one specialized register: angelic. Muldaur's melodies drip slow like honey over grandiose arrangements, centered on full-bodied sweeping strings, gorgeous in their romanticism. Throughout an air of folk permeates, but is quickly offset by saccharine choruses flying high, buried by shiny production and all enhanced with lovey-dovey quirk. 

"I like to cook for you in my underwear," Muldaur sings on 'Cook For You' and it's her soft murmur, met by a velvety string arrangement, that carries sincerity in tone, warm and familiar. Instead of vague announcements of love and loss favored by contemporary female songwriters such as Feist, who retains intimacy through her more lo-fi recordings, The Movie incorporates silly details to counter its flawless, orchestral sonic qualities. "You had a thumbhole in your cardigan," Muldaur remembers in her ode to the lettered streets 'Alphabet City'. When her soprano soars over the hook, the simple rhyme "A, B, C, D/ Just you and me" carries the listener to the time and place, all urban sprawl and puppy love, from Paris to New York City and beyond. 'Nothing/Nowhere', with Stevens' vocal touch, and 'Pluton', with its tittering piano introduction, wouldn't have sounded out of place on Stevens’ own Illinois, the eclectic instrumentation carrying intricate harmonies. This Movie is pure romantic-comedy, gorgeous and joyous with its own moments of heartbreak, and as an album competes with Illinois, albeit for lovers instead of history buffs. 

So what of the buzz-factor? Where is the hyperbolic gushing for Clare & the Reasons? It certainly does not come crashing down at the hands of inevitable backlash. Homogeneous maybe – the record's similar melodies hover around Muldaur's distinct range, the tempo hardly wavering – but yet the sound remains pure and untarnished to the end, hardly deserving of ire, and carrying the consistency of its title, the singular mood akin to that of a film. Instead, let us blame ignorance for the relative hush surrounding this quality release. And here's to hoping the powers that be awake to The Movie, giving it the top featured billing it deserves.