CD Review
The Night’s Last Tomorrow
Mark Sinnis

This is the third CD released by the frontman for Cemetery-and-Western band, Ninth House, and it is rich with both new material and mature, acoustic reinterpretations of older songs, often featuring brave and innovative instrumentation to accompany Mark’s bitter-sweet, chocolatey vocals. Some songs have appeared on Sinnis’s two prior solo albums and Ninth House recordings. Mark hasn’t dropped his unwavering focus on death and how awareness of it causes us to see life’s experiences in a certain light.

The opening track, “The Night’s Last Tomorrow” epitomizes this concept, and reaches heights of languid sadness thanks to the moody lap-steel guitar of bluesman, Lenny Molotov.

“15 Miles to Hell’s Gate” has a more frustrated, angry tone, whereas “Your Past May Come Back” is surprisingly upbeat and showcases Marks’s amazing, mellifluous vocals.

The “western” in “Cemetery-and-Western” is evident in “Fallible Friend.” My own particular favorite, “Follow the Line” is a dark, Ninth House treatise about suicidal-drunkenness that is incredibly melodious, even in this relatively light, accordion-accompanied version.

Other tracks include new originals as well as acoustic tributes to the Sisters of Mercy, stripped down versions of songs by Sinnis’s old band, The Apostates, pieces with names like “Skeletons” and “Scars,” plus a New Orleans-flavored Louie Armstrong cover and Billy Holiday’s “Gloomy Sunday.” The album ends appropriately with a country gospel death-march.

Sinnis’s style is a blending of folk-rock and traditional country, western, gospel and blues that is sure to please as well as fascinate music lovers of every stripe..

This singer-songwriter, originally from NJ, moved to Miami and is now a fixture in LA’s live music scene for the past 8 years. She chose the folk-rock idiom for her autobiographical retrospective on the various “lives” she has lived, first growing up a subjugated daughter in a Sicilian home then through various stages of liberation, maturation and artistic success. Her wide-ranging vocals are sweet and supple, reminiscent of Tracy Chapman. People in her past who tried to suppress her personal fulfillment are given retroactive castigations in darkly poetic pieces like “Rearview Mirror,” “I’m Still Me” and “Light of Truth.” Although the overall attitude is often bitter, the compositions, her voice and her arrangements are always beautiful. All is not accusation. Some tracks are retrospectives of gratitude and admiration. The finale is a jaunty, ironic Italian folksong song that makes peace between Veronica and the past that she does not totally reject.
B+ In a word: Bittersweet

This, Ninth House’s third full length album continues in the band’s deep, dark, cemetery & western style featuring the moody poetry and vocals of baritone Mark Sinnis. Twelve tracks are offered, ranging from metal-flavored country rock to smooth, plaintive ballads to jangly honky tonk. As in their prior CDs, minor key melodies prevail. Ninth House ventures beyond the level of pessimism that is customary in traditional country & western to the extent of crossing over into Gothic rock. All songs are originals except the 1948 antique, “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” resurrected in a commendable version reminiscent of Sinnis’s idol, Johnny Cash. The title track is a gem, an intoxicating anthem that unites existential protest with passionate, irresistible hard rock. Though the topics are generally dark and the melodies mournful, the driving rock rhythms and exuberant guitar accompaniment ironically lift the listener to a kind of nihilistic euphoria.

After three disappointing CDs in the past five years. Peter Murphy has come back with a fine album that is strictly in the rich style that he has been developing ever since the breakup of his seminal band Bauhaus. “Unshattered” contains eleven tracks characteristic of Murphy’s development since he went on his own and has the potential to undo the damage done to Murphy’s fan base by the last prior album ”Dust” —a poorly-received but highly-accomplished effort in which he abandoned the rock idiom in favor of entering the Near Eastern genre.

Show-casing his rich baritone, he sings and recites mysterious, sometimes enigmatic poetry to the accompaniment of heavily rhythmic, dark and mainly minor-key instrumentals. A few tracks have the harsh, monotonous dissonance that is reminiscent of old Bauhaus numbers, but most songs on this album are profoundly, richly melodious. A couple make odd but sparing use of an accordion or delicate, bent note guitar accompaniment. All entries on this album represent a returning to the beloved style of his best prior discs, “Cascade,” “Holy Smoke” and those albums previous.