On her fourth solo album, The Waking Sleep, folk-pop singer/songwriter Katie Herzig has paired with co-producer Cason Cooley to come up with musical tracks combining two seemingly contradictory elements. On the one hand, the two create light dance-pop synthesizer arrangements, and on the other, they marry them to the strings of violinists Zach Casebolt and Eleonore Denig and cellist Claire Indie. Musically, anyway, the effect is like Lady Gaga lite meets Laurie Anderson. Certainly, Herzig doesn't sing like Gaga or Anderson, nor does she sing about the subjects that interest them. She has become a favorite of musical supervisors for such TV shows as Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill, and Pretty Little Liars, and it's easy to tell why. She sings in a dreamy, conversational soprano, her lyrics full of charming indecision and encouragement. The title of the lead-off song, "Free My Mind" gets its message across, although in Herzig's terms, freeing one's mind can mean opening it up to a lot of alternatives, to the point that "I never had my mind made up before the bomb dropped." Still, she has positive words for her listeners, telling them "Find your voice" in "Make a Noise" and "This might be the best day of your life" in "Best Day of Your Life." If any song is a good candidate to accompany the ruminations of a conflicted female character on a primetime soap opera, however, it must be "Closest I Get," a slow waltz set to a piano/strings accompaniment and full of sensitive self-pity. Yes, Herzig can succumb to the sin of preciousness on occasion. But The Waking Sleep is a musically ambitious album that points directions to further growth for a still young artist.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo