Blind Devine- Devouring the Beautiful

With a history that contains a number of fairly impressive licensing deals for both film and television, Arizona's Blind Divine shine on Devouring the Beautiful. Compiling a whopping 23 tracks (nearly 78 minutes) culled from their recording career, including half a dozen tracks from the feature film Orphans and Angels, the band's proper CD debut blends sultry trip-hop and mellow, moody rock with ethereal overtones. Fronted by the sensual and melodically interesting breathy vocal work of Paula Catherine Valencia, the band's sound is anchored by multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Daniel Martin Diaz with a few additional musicians lending their talents.

The disc as a whole, while varying somewhat stylistically, is exceptionally sonically consistent. Highlights here include the spectacular opener, "Something Magical", and "Sometime Soon", perhaps the disc's most radio-friendly offering featuring a particularly emotional and memorable chorus. The brief moody trip-hop of "Never Say Goodbye", the semi-ethereal and melodically lovely "Thief", the spectacular reverb-drenched "Just to be with You", and the slightly dissonant production of "Confession" stand out, as well. The bass-heavy, sonically dense and chaotic "Honeysuckle Vines" and the beautiful "Darling" are also noteworthy, despite the latter having but one single repeated verse.

A few other tracks stand out largely for straying from the album's sonic formula. "Home" throws a bit of lounge jazz saxophone into its ethereal trip-hop dub frame. "Angels Have Wings" is a nice, percussion-less acoustic guitar based ethereal rock track that, perhaps, recalls Love Spirals Downwards. The disc's two closing tracks are also, notably, instrumentals, with "On Phone" being a piano-centered ethereal piece and "Revelations" an airy, haunting ambient wash.

Sometimes recalling artists like Massive Attack, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, and Tori Amos and at other times slightly reminiscent of Akira Yamaoka's work from the later Silent Hill soundtracks, Blind Divine's Devouring the Beautiful is a lovely outing with careful attention paid to sonic elements and production. Fans of the aforementioned artists or moody ethereal trip-hop in general will likely find this cohesive compilation exceptionally strong and worthwhile with both mainstream and underground appeal.