#silver ladders

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Mary Lattimore | Sometimes He’s In My Dreams

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Sometimes He’s in My Dreams // Mary Lattimore, Silver Ladders (2020)

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Mary Lattimore’s Silver Ladders

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Mary Lattimore — Silver Ladders (Ghostly International)

Silver Ladders by Mary Lattimore

Harpist Mary Lattimore has been extremely busy the last few years, collaborating with artists as diverse as Meg Baird, Jeff Zeigler, Rosali and Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan. Silver Ladders is her latest solo record on Ghostly International, following 2018’s stark, crystalline Hundreds of Days. The distinction here is that the album was produced by Slowdive’s Neil Halstead, who brings growling synth bass and ripples of delayed guitar into the mix. It’s a wonderfully rich sound palette, and one that plays to the strengths of both musicians.

The difference between Hundreds of Days and Silver Ladders is writ large in the cover art by Becky Suss. Hundreds of Days depicted a neat and tidy front room, reflecting that album’s mannered, urbane sound. In contrast, the cover of Silver Ladders depicts a diagram of the solar system looming down over a domestic dog curled up on a mat, which echoes this new album’s more pensive, exploratory tone. While both albums build upon the repetition of musical phrases, Silver Ladders feels anxious to break free of its earthly moorings and cut loose into the cosmos, regardless of the rocky ride such a journey might entail.  

On “Pine Trees,” Lattimore’s cyclical playing is highlighted by shimmering trills and some elegant, horn-like synth tones. The title track is more spacious and hesitant, its imploring phrases blurred by the creative use of delay. Then, on the tense, 11-minute “Till A Mermaid Drags You Under,” Lattimore’s harp loops are accompanied by some prominent echoed guitar from Halstead. The synth bass feels like it’s trying to lift the melody out of the murk, only to be sucked back into the song’s insistent swirl, as sparkling pitch-shifted harp lines race around like bubbles eager to break through the surface. The mesmerizing music-box melodies of “Sometimes He’s in My Dreams” are complemented beautifully by a Halstead guitar line that would have sounded right at home on Slowdive’s Pygmalion, which makes for the album’s finest moment. And on the droning “Chop On The Climbout,” deep synth is brought to the foreground, trills of harp fighting to break through the rain clouds.  

There’s a satisfying tension between melody and atmosphere throughout the album, which makes for a gripping listen. This musical relationship between Lattimore and Halstead has yielded such striking results that one would hope a future collaboration is on the cards.  

Tim Clarke

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Mary Lattimore | Silver Ladders 

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