Pear in the Pink Thing (2007)
Artist:  Marianne Kesler 
Label:  Indie
Length: 12 tracks / 44:40 minutes
 
I first heard Pear in the Pink Thing in its entirety online at the website Marianne has dedicated to her latest release - www.pearinthepinkthing.com (what a great idea!).  The website contains mp3’s of all songs on the album in their entirety.  This is the sixth release for singer-songwriter & acoustic guitarist Marianne Kesler out of Ohio and, as her song “Catch Me If You Can” suggests, she is not in the least slowing down musically-speaking. 
 
Pear in the Pink Thing continues in some ways in the direction that her previous release “Green Room” began; i.e. intelligent pop rock with Marianne’s poetic-folk sensibilities.
 
The opening track “Mystery” is CD single material – a great upbeat song with a bridge that contains her raison d’etre or reason-for-being artistically-speaking – “Making (sweet) music from the inside out.”  The song that keeps going around in my head is “Once More” – striking lyrics and beautiful, almost-haunting music.  Lyrics like that of the chorus: 

I will rise like the phoenix to fly once more,
On brave new wings that reach and soar.
And I’ll find what I was created for
Once more…Once more. 

God is the One Who purifies or refines us as He did with the prophet Isaiah with the application of burning coal to his lips by one of the seraphs.  This song reminds me a little of “Unrefined” – one of my favorites from “Green Room” because of its sheer honest and openness.  “Every Time” could also be a CD single – I love the bluesy guitar accompaniment.  “Still Small Sadness,” a radio-friendly ballad and a personal favourite, has a great lead break and a moving keyboard accompaniment that I swear sounds just like a cello.  
 
“Poets Dream” has a great glockenspiel accompaniment.  The song ends with a reference to the apostle Peter’s Pentecost Day message in which he quotes the prophet Joel’s prophecy about the increased outpouring of the Spirit in the last days: “Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.”  “2 O’clock” appropriately has a musical accompaniment that actually sounds like the ticking of a clock.  The fourth radio-friendly song of the album is “Big Love.”  This is the (pardon the pun) big ballad of the album, just as “Melt Down” was for the Long Road Home album – one of my absolute fav ballads of all time (please excuse me for getting personal).
 
The CD clocks in at a nice 44 minutes and 40 seconds.  As a kind of encore, Marianne finishes the album with two Neil Young songs – “Ohio” and “The Needle and the Damage Done” (a kind of tribute to her late father) – making an excellent album even better.  As Marianne acknowledges, Neil Young’s music has been a significant influence in her life and these two remakes are a real treat for Neil Young fans – ones that Neil Young himself would be proud of.
 

What is evident from this release (as in previous releases) is the poetry, the musicianship and the production of these songs. These songs stand alone as poems in their own right (even without the music) – which can’t be said of a lot of today’s visually-dependant music.  The cover art by Mellissa Rae Saffer is wonderful, as is the photography by Hoi. One would again have to tip the hat to J. Benjamin Kesler for his top-notch musicianship and production skills.

Frank Rasenberger     September 2007
www.myspace.com/frankrasenberger