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Renee-Louise Carafice: Tells You To Fight

This album had a dramatic conception as regular NZM readers will know. In 2003, on her birthday (no less), Renee Louise Carafice was institutionalised with severe depression, and part of her recovery was writing this fittingly titled debut album. Carafice's experiences with the NZ mental health system make for sometimes harrowing listening, but the experience of being institutionalised and the resulting album were evidently cathartic for the singer. A strong theme of the desire to escape is present in many forms, not only in the beautiful, woozy Asylum Escape Song and the glorious wide open sonics of To Run. Carafice released first single Lorazapam soon after her own release, and won a Nescafe Big Break award in 2005. This led to recording 'Tells You To Fight' at Steve Albini's analogue studio in Chicago, engineered by Nick Abbott (Crowded House), and produced by Goldenhorse's Ben King. She moved to Chicago the following year, and has been supporting popular US acts since, including Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. 'Tells You to Fight' deserves a strong following - the songs are extremely good with intelligent lyrics that detail distressing experiences, but with the obvious suffering comes a strong vein of hope and a determination to move on and succeed.

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