Mary Lattimore New Album Silver Ladders – Ghostly International

Silver Ladders is a lush, string filled realm that offers numerous auditory panoramas.

Silver Ladders is a work that is born of improvisation and collaboration. Mary Lattimore is a prolific artist. Playing with many others such as Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Meg Baird and many more. Mary is currently from the Los Angeles area but has and will play local and abroad. For the new listeners, Mary Lattimore plays harp. How many sods do you know that play six string guitars (me included) ? Harp is wildly refreshing due to the amount of guitarists that have come my way, but I’ll avoid that tangent. I’m very happy to hear that she had a chance to work with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead on her LP. He and Slowdive are absolute favorites of mine.

Silver Ladders opens with Pine Trees. Delicate beauty. Idyllic soundscape in which I could visualize my own coniferous vistas. Pine Trees blurs the lines between guitar and harp. Actually a few songs on Silver Ladders do this. When Mary attacks with more staccato on the higher strings harp is apparent.

Conversely there are times when Mary and Neil’s playing blend together and it becomes layered steel string magic.

Title track Silver Ladders is abundant with melodious phrases, again blending the post shoegaze of Slowdive’s Pygmalion guitars with Mary Lattimore’s masterful command of the strings. Silver Ladders (s/t track) swells with enchanted song, harp flutters, and near and distant drones.

Til A Mermaid Drags You Under is a song with a beautiful yet foreboding quality. Like a siren luring you into a trap. Quick, nimble, harp arpeggiation with fog horn like drones. These drones blur lines between a synth and a guitar with clean tone but super long sustain. Guitar accents once again reminiscent of Slowdive’s Pygmalion. The way the guitar rings out versus the quick finger flutters on the high strings of the harp sets me up for something that is disarming and impending. Sometimes He’s In My Dreams has a quick write up as it was the first song released from Silver Ladders. Read about it here – https://meatsheetfanzine.com/mary-lattimore-new-track/ .

Next is Chop On The Climbout which starts with warm, oscillating sound waves, hums, and warbles. The harp comes in after a minute and accentuates the low frequency as if the tone of the strings are tiny but brilliant sparkles.

Feathery, yet almost glass like pluck notes which give way to a pause in the hum. The hum resumes and intensifies to a buzz. The buzz grows and becomes a roar.

This roar could easily remind one of a behemoth ship blasting off and taking flight. This is probably the most dynamic and / or adventurous song on Silver Ladders. As far as contrast of Neil’s playing vs. Mary’s. The playing doesn’t clash, in fact what they each do on Chop On The Climbout enhances each of their performances. Second to last is Don’t Look. Both of these songs Chop On The Climbout and Don’t Look have Mary’s exquisite playing combined with provocative sounds of different timbres.

Don’t Look has a bass infused piano sounding ‘gronk’ that intensifies as the song continues. It is as if someone shook a thin metal plate and lowered the frequency well into bass clef range and reverbed it out. Combined with spacy echoing guitars and Mary’s flutters and precise picking, Don’t Look is one of many triumphs. (The record as a whole is sublime and fantastic, I’d be hard pressed to want to omit any one track or have to pick my favorite track) 

Each song is a shimmery silver ladder in its own right. Leading to a new, different level each time.

Lastly, Silver Ladders arrives at Thirty Tulips. This track feels right at home. Metaphorically, if Silver Ladders were a house this could be a quaint attic, or charming back kitchen /pantry off of a countryside cottage. However as previously stated, I wouldn’t want to pick a favorite “room” or track. Each has its function and charm. The allure of Thirty Tulips is the way the reverb or delayed plucks and strums dance with each other. Thirty Tulips is a woven tapestry rich with time based effects that gently fade and twinkle into bliss. One of this years best hands down. Bravo. 94/100