Review Journey to the end of the night

The Dutch singer-songwriter Suzy Dexter showed a fondness of Americana on her self-released albums ‘On The Moon’ and ‘Lost Track Of Time’. She wrote mainly ballads and country-rock songs, occasionally also jazz and highlife. The binding force was her full and expressive voice with which she made her good songs colourful and personal. That applies even more to the ten songs on this third album, not only thematically related but also in tone (and sound). More than ever her acoustic guitar is the starting point for her compositions. She is accompanied by guitar and bass player Rob Hendriks and incidentally by cellist Anna Schweizer, violinist Marleen Veldstra and Erik Visser, playing the mandolin.

Dexter wrote her songs at night but besides literally they are also figuratively nocturnes: in the open and minimally arranged songs her lyrics suggest more than they reveal, though clearly they refer to the subjects love, parting and loss. She emphasizes this by singing them subdued, but the emotion is clear in her vocal inflections. With her voice she holds on to the people she is forced to let go. Often whispering more than singing Dexter, with her smooth and colourful voice, evokes images not explicitly named but precisely expressed in her tone. Thus her third and by far best album raises a personal and intimate monument for the people she so obviously loves and the form she puts it in is overall sincere.