Mauri Dark delivers a potent update on the blues with “Poison Woman”. The lyrics have a sharpness them and are delivered with cutting perfection. Elements of country and folk enter into the fray adding punctuation into the piece. The cryptic piano works wonders in working alongside the guitar to add to its majestic presence. By far though his impeccable delivery goes for an eerie sensibility one that is given with such righteous fury, as the tension that runs through it feels visceral.
Immediately bursting with energy, the many layers intermingle to create a gothic sensibility. Urgently delivered, there is an intense enormity to his performance for his voice alone works wonders for he delivers each line with cold careful precision. Everything circles around the sheer magnitude of his voice from the ominous melody to the careful arrangement. He delves deeper and deeper into a sense of desire, a longing for freedom far away without restraint. Yearning to break free, this conflict informs the whole of the track. With the initial impulse of defiance, the song progresses from there as additional detail adds to the razor-sharp clarity of his vision in a way that is distinctly his own. The rhythm is a procession, a death of a relationship and a rebirth of a person brought out of one. Elements of salvation of saving oneself, dominate throughout giving it a universality to the themes.
“Poison Woman” shows off Mauri Dark’s ability to craft an entire world with a sense of poetry that possesses an intensity to it.
