Heart Like Feathers

iTunes Review

Heart Like Feathers renews this Seattle-based singer/songwriter's cult-hero status with a collection of insinuating tunes inviting comparisons with Leonard Cohen, Ron Sexsmith, and similar bards of the bittersweet. Deeble’s parched, breathy vocals give him the air of a seasoned traveler on life’s bohemian fringes. In dreamlike fashion, his images of ordinary life and private fantasy blend in tracks like “Scarecrow,” “Undertow,” and the album’s title number. Moving beyond personal confession, he turns “Hearing Voices, Seeing Ghosts” into a shadowy yet compelling character portrait. A fine cast of support players helps keep Heart Like Feathers aloft, with Amanda Lawrence’s viola work and Anna Lynne Williams’s background vocals making particularly crucial contributions. Hope finally bursts through the album’s dark clouds on “Sunflower,” featuring a guest appearance by Deeble’s old friend Victoria Williams. It closes an album’s worth of finely wrought songs, tinged with sadness and redeemed by compassion.