Judee Sill “Heart Food” (1973)

I've heard Joni Mitchell, and I've heard Laura Nyro, and without wanting to denigrate either of those fine artists, I think Judee Sill's better than either of them. Actually, that's not quite fair; Sill reminds me more of Brian Wilson and his "teenage symphonies to God" than either Mitchell or Nyro. Like Wilson, there's a sense of childlike wonder to Judee; like Wilson, both talk a lot about God (and, in Sill's case, Jesus) without being explicitly Christian; instead God is used as a name for the Other, the Muse. And, like Wilson, Sill fuses all sorts of musics -- pop, soul, doo-wop, folk, "cosmic cowboy music" similar to Gene Clark's -- with an elaborate sense of orchestration to come up with something completely open, gorgeously sunny, wistfully dark and totally sensuous. In his liner notes to the CD reissue, XTC's Andy Partridge talks about the "velvet milk" of this record, and that's a perfect description of its plushness (but not lushness). Anyone who could hear "The Donor" and not acclaim its composer as a pop genius doesn't deserve a record player. You can, charitably, see why it didn't sell in 1973: just too damn individual and demanding a listen. Then again, Pet Sounds didn't sell either. –Brad