Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks

Karen Elson the supermodel. Karen Elson the wife of Jack White. Karen Elson the eerie red head that wears the horrendously painful looking shoes in the White Stripe's Blue Orchid video.

Strip all these titles and your left with a ghostly songstress with curiously inviting murder ballads.

While Karen isn't totally new to the music world (her single debuted back in February) her debut album is. The result of The Ghost Who Walks is lacy, dark, and folky. The feel is that of a Nashville Victorian defunct bride singing through sepia colored memories...in the 70's. As intriguing, if not amusing, as this description sounds, at times the songs can be a little monotonous.
Opening the album is it's main title 'The Ghost Who Walks', a song that perfectly hits the lacy, dark, and folky spot. Karen's soothing voice comes as quite a surprise considering her aesthetic look is that of a fierce femme, and the song talks about stabbing a lover to death. 'Pretty Babies' is a sultrier yet cheerful song, that holds a tinge of darkness within the details. Meanwhile 'Cruel Summer' goes a little way too country cheesy for the album, as in I'm-in-a-barnyard-singing-on-top-of-a-haystack cheesy, not even the violin could save it. However, the violin did a pretty sweet job complementing her in 'Mouths to Feed,' a song that talks about the poverty caused by the unfertile fields.
The album itself has great production and finds the right balance between a clean sound and a dusty feel, however the formula that she sticks too might not be enough to stand above the wave of folky/bluesy/girl-with-guitar singers.

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