Marisa & the Moths - What Doesn't Kill You - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

So it appears that this band is something of a conduit for individuals to showcase a talent that supersedes what might otherwise be available to them. First there was Sophie Lloyd, an ex-Moth turned shredder to the stars with a list of contacts in hard rock that would make any aspiring guitarist's jaw drop. Then there's Marisa Rodriguez herself, whose name at the figurehead of the whole enterprise is perfectly justified. When a lot of hard rock is always on the hunt for a strong female vocalist, you're not finding many in the up-and-comer circuits that can surpass Rodriguez. It's why she's the only one the album cover-she's the superstar. In fact, you could go a step even further-she justifies the entire existence of Marisa And The Moths as a band. Without her, this could feel a lot less good overall, squatting in the antespace between '90s alt-rock, grunge and hard rock that, nowadays especially, can seem a little limited. It's what makes What Doesn't Kill You's 16 tracks spring out the most vociferously without a shred of subtlety to be found. There's a statement looking to be made with this album, on all fronts. Cursed is a great opener on that token, removing the rock standards entirely for piano, strings and Rodriguez's perfectly pitched emotionality that gives so much more in this kind of environment. It's also true of Straight-Laced, sporting the album's prime cut of choruses that the sparse solemnity of alt-country makes all the greater. Really, this whole piece could be just a gush session over Rodriguez as a vocalist, and it'd be perfectly justified. She's got everything you'd want-power; range; fluidity; the ability to channel the effects of her contemporaries while also sounding like her own performer. And it does speak volumes when, on average, What Doesn't Kill You's vocal lines are it's big standouts. There's an implacable determination to the way that