Timony peaks on 'Mountains'

Anyone interested in the creative possibilities of music needs to listen to the work of Mary Timony. Like many of the artists released by Matador, Timony takes the sort of poetic lyrics you actually would want to read and adds a unique style of mellow guitar rock elevated to brilliance by non-traditional arrangements and the inclusion of pianos, synthesizers, flutes, violins and other abstract instruments.

Many people may be familiar with Timony's past work as the brains behind the Boston-based band Helium. The band generated quite a bit of buzz back in 1994 during the waning moments of the grunge revolution with their debut EP, "Pirate Prude." This masterpiece gleamed with some of the most distorted sounding guitar-driven sonic ferocity ever captured. On top of the monolithic fuzzy guitar riffs capable of making the masses cower, Timony dropped a set of conceptually linked fantastic ramblings dealing with vampires and prostitution. Though highly allegorical and bleeding with feminist teenage angst, Timony's charismatic guitar work and lyrics instantly caught the attention of bands such as Sonic Youth, who were delighted to invite Helium on their tour and to play at Lollapalooza.

Now six years later after less and less extreme albums with Helium, Timony has abandoned her distortion pedals, angry lyrics and even her band. Her music still radiates with her brilliantly fantastic lyrics, which now more resemble nursery rhymes than nightmarish allegories. Song titles such as "Dungeon Dance" and "Rider on a Stormy Sea" are just the tip of the iceberg. Each song resembles the sort of fable that seems childish on the surface but glimmers with deeper meaning and allegory.

Her music has become equally as light-hearted with a near abandonment of the distorted guitar sound that made albums such as "Pirate Prude" and "Dirt of Luck" such masterpieces. Instead, Timony has turned increasingly towards the piano as her prime source of melody while using the guitar more as a shading tool, a subtle sound buried deep beneath her vocals and melodies. Some songs such as the opening track, "Dungeon Dance," don't even use guitars while songs such as "Valley of One Thousand Perfumes" use guitar riffs as the driving force. In the end, whether one prefers the sonic palette of guitar tone that Timony once practiced or her new emphasis on melody, one cannot deny the fact that this infamous woman knows how to write brilliant songs that get increasingly melodic and literate with every album.