Antje Duvekot: Boys, Flowers, Miles
Antje Duvekot is one of the more talented, exciting younger singer-songwriters. She writes sophisticated, interesting songs and is not afraid to sing her mind. Many of the tracks were recorded in concert and she is joined by three accompanists on violin, bass and keyboards that suit her self-production to a “T.” Duvekot possesses a pleasing voice that wraps itself around her lyrics. Her songs tend toward highly personal topics, with occasional forays into sharp social commentary, such as on “Judas.” This sympathetic song about a child named Judas, a name chosen with more than a passing nod to the original, is one of her best, although it will keep this CD out of Christian bookstores. “Pearls” combines a Southern odyssey (since she’s from Germany, I assume this not her story) with a socio-political commentary on the South. It’s the most gripping song on the CD. Although I generally am dismayed by obscenity, this is one case of a song with a non-gratuitous obscenity. Duvekot’s often dark writing seeps below the skin and forms a melodic tattoo. However, there’s one grave, unforgivable flaw on this CD. She includes snippets of live performances between most of the songs. That alone would not be bad, except most are in-group jokes and references that totally baffle those who were not present at one of her concerts. Some are completely inappropriate. I don’t need to know who she went home with, the song should stand on its own. These interludes grow longer and more frequent toward the end of the CD. To make matters worse, they are not reflected in the song list, so you have no way of skipping them. Duvekot shows great potential, but she needs to take the art of creating a CD more seriously.