Tiny Vipers – Life on Earth (2009) [Sub Pop] // Grade: C-

Tiny Vipers, the musical project of Seattle-based singer-songwriter Jesy Fortino is the darkest music you’re likely to hear this year.

Fortino’s second album, Life on Earth, picks up where 2007′s Hands Across The Void left off, and never really deviates from her formula of sparse, finger-picked acoustic guitar and slow, drifting lyrics. The lack of significant instrumentation works in Life On Earth‘s favor, with each track wandering seamlessly into the next. Tiny Vipers’ sound is defined by Fortino’s husky, ice-cold voice that sucks the peacefulness from her instrumentation and transforms her compositions to folk catacombs.

Ironically, the successes of the Life on Earth are also its undoings. The lengthy tracks shift so seamlessly that they become indiscernible from one another. Fortino’s voice is mesmerizing and unique, but its effect is numbed by her static instrumentation. Life on Earth has all the markings of a memorable album, but manages to sabotage itself by adhering too strictly to a formula.

- Scrooge McFuck