Chaotic Good

According to her own metaphorical confession, Johanna Warren built a beautiful pyre, lay down upon it, then lit the fire, only to rise from its ashes and offer us her fifth album. Amid her charred remains lies the emotional dependence that had plagued her life up to that point. In her reincarnation, Warren is Chaotic Good, an allusion to the alignment system of Dungeons & Dragons characters, according to which the classification means good people, of course, but also free, unpredictable… and anarchic.

Listening to this suite of ten moving songs, one notices a quasi-alternation between the calm compositions and those on which the metronome oscillates faster. The hardness of her lyrics is constant, however, notwithstanding the tempo. On “Twisted”, it becomes just that, with Warren screaming in a way that would make Courtney Love jealous. And the tune of “Only the Truth” will bring you back to a decade earlier, since it’s very similar to Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way”.

Formerly a peaceful and pacific bardess, as we can tell by listening to her previous albums, Warren now advocates another watchword: shoot to kill. It’s crystal clear on “Bones of Abandoned Futures”:  “The time is ripe for killing / The dream that never came true / I came wearing a white gown / Now I’m burying it in the cold ground / For I wish no longer to be bound to you”.

What can be said with certainty is that Warren has an eloquent talent.