Eerie Wanda - Hum (2016) [Vinyl]

Eerie Wanda isn’t a person, but rather the name given to the relentlessly memorable recorded results of an album delivered by Croatian/Dutch singer-songwriter Marina Tadic, with a little help from her (incredibly talented) friends, including (but not limited to) the phenomenal rhythm section of Jacco Gardner’s band.

While the word “eerie” isn’t the adjective that springs to mind most readily when listening to “Hum,” there are several others eager to take its place – beautiful, striking and unforgettable among them. Throughout the album, Eerie Wanda displays a somewhat magical ability of using somewhat standard song structures as the skeletons of their sound, but replacing the dead marrow of those bones with a unique and enlivening mixture of dizzy joy and sparkling sonic lucidity.

It’s clear there’s something remarkable about Eerie Wanda and “Hum” from the very beginning, with the ringing chords of “Happy Hard Times” serving as a momentarily prelude to Tadic’s opening declaration, “Everyday, I watch in silence / How you walk through the fields of diamonds.” Tadic’s voice is as central as anything else to the album’s success; it’s a two-toned, barely-accented gem of sweetness and melancholy, a distant cousin (somehow) to both..