You Look Like Hell

James Parentis Dreamy Third Studio Album

While the title of singer/songwriter James Parentis new album, You Look Like Hell might suggest a noisy explosion of snarling electronica, it turns out to be a sensual heart-spinner all done up in fingerpicked guitars and moody reverb.

The albums opener, Brownout, creeps in like a vengeful fog as though Jeff Buckley had risen from the grave. Parentis delicate tenor voice sails carefully over splashes of cymbals and earthy guitars.

While the lyrical content sometimes walks a path that is decidedly independent from heavily structured melody, the big picture of You Look Like Hell is an emotionally tranquilizing phantasmagoria. Parentis vocals are sublimely soft, carefully treading the albums mysterious narrative.

Im not trying to be obtuse, Parenti says of his songwriting. I want it to be a thing that can grow. It allows my relationship with the songs to change. And trusting the subconscious. Allowing something to resonate in a gut way that can be deeper than conscious understanding and trusting that it's right without being able to articulate exactly what it means.

Its no wonder that the haunting simmer of the title track feels like the soundtrack to a horror film, since Parenti drew his inspiration from a screenplay of the same name written by his wife. The script, which centers on a grieving young woman who literally transforms into a monster, served as a true north from which all of the remaining tunes were born. Through his attentive effort, he skillfully uses compassion to navigate anguish.

I wanted to make a record that deals with trauma, he says.

Beneath the dark, layered rhapsodic waxing, the twelve melancholic tracks of You Look Like Hell showcase a songwriter aching to soothe a wound with poetry.

You Look Like Hell is available on iTunes.

Check out the title track below here .