Aaron Yonda
Courtney Collins is a woman of many hats. A voice actor, songwriter and video producer with credits on popular series like Chad Vader and Beer & Board Games, the multitalented Collins seems to be in several different places all at once.
Across her wide-ranging creative career, Collins has released solo albums of pop covers and Christmas standards, two albums fronting power-pop act Arena Venus and now her first solo album of originals: Hinterlands.
Debuted earlier this year on DIY-imprint Maypole Records, Hinterlands is an icy, atmospheric melding of pop and R&B, with songs exploring the passage of time, relationships and the hazardous landscapes of the mind.
Recorded at Alpha Tango and mixed at Dub Fort and Ecstattic Studio, all in Minneapolis, Collins tapped her longtime collaborator Jeremy Ylvisaker to add extensive instrumentation to Hinterlands. Adrian Suarez and Martin Dosh lend percussion skills.
Hinterlands opens with an ambient instrumental piece that bleeds into “At Sea,” a chilled-out number that rests on a phasing bass groove and echoing synth-drums as Collins explores a rocky relationship through an extended oceanic metaphor.
“There’s nothing left to ground us/what we’ve lost we’ll find at sea,” Collins sings, “so don’t you dare drop that anchor.”
Hinterlands then rolls into “April Came Early,” where the instrumental palette is spiced with a cabaret-like swing and muffled snare backbeat. Above it all, Collins reflects on the passing of the seasons, the impermanence of people and places around us and moving forward while seeing what’s been left behind.
Much of Collins’ writing is infused with metaphors, which tend to obfuscate the personal details. But Collins opens up more in one of Hinterlands’ most promising tracks, the pop number “Anthems” (a reworking of a previously released song), and the tune is more compelling as a result.
“We went too long,” Collins sings, “the soundtrack we were singing lacked a certain kind of song,”
Unfortunately, just as the verse swells to the chorus, the instruments go wide and pull back, leaving Collins pushing forward mostly on her own in a moment that should be — well, more anthemic.
Collins uses her voice to powerful and moving effect, and the low-key instrumentation throughout Hinterlands highlights her excellent singing. The album’s dreamlike music, vocal emphasis and natural imagery recalls bands like Pure Bathing Culture or Beach House, though Collins’ delivery is more theatrical and less washed-over than those acts.
Fittingly, the album closes with “Home,” the capstone on Collins’ love letter to the Midwest.
“When will these highways take me back to hinterlands of home?” Collins implores as a drum machine punches in and noise guitar swells in the background.
Hinterlands excels at creating an atmosphere, evoking the feeling of frozen plains and sweltering days of summer. With any luck, Collins will continue making music, and tell us more about herself.
