Persephone's Bees

Notes from the Underground

(Columbia)

Record Review by Amber Henson

Russia and Oakland.  Two places known for being cold and hardcore.  Who knew if you put them together, they would make some really feel-good music?

Enter Persephone’s Bees, with Russian lead singer Angelina Moysov.  They make some very intriguing music; you want more as soon as you listen to one song.  Moysov’s voice is high-pitched, in a good way, and she has a very strong accent.  This leads to a very unusual sound, part of what makes their music so great.

Track three, their single called “City of Love,” starts out with a beat that is so reminiscent of the opening of The Stone Roses’ “Fools Gold” that, given the choice between the two, fans of either band probably wouldn’t be able to pick it out.  Most of the Bees songs are pretty rockin’ in the early ‘90s vein, especially “Even Though I’m Fooling Around.”  That one starts out, “People, people, people.  Cars, cars, (pause) cars.”

There are only a couple of songs on the album that are slow, “Walk to the Moon” and “Home.”  Perhaps the strangest on the album is “Paper Plane,” which sounds like a weird combination of Elton John and Huey Lewis and the News.  The refrain is “Riding on a big, white butterfly.”  Then, as far as I can pick up, Moysov admits that there is no butterfly and apologizes.  The whole song is so naïve about what lyrics are often “supposed” to be like (depressing, or about the object of your affection) that you can’t help smiling at the cheese—which isn’t to say the band isn’t cheesy.  I’m very curious to see the band live.  Try to do that if you can.  And, if nothing else, appreciate the band’s name, ‘cause it’s awesome.