By: Caitlin Hoffman
For BiggerThanBeyonce.Com
I hear an honest streak: pulses of pain, plashes of rapture, intelligence, openness, aching optimism.
Bravery. Struggle. Joy.
Nehedar is the project of NYC-based singer-songwriter Emilia Cataldo, a character as complicated as she is poignant. There aren’t enough genres in the world to keep her creative curiosity satisfied. The Warming House (released this summer) is a lively, cultural event, sometimes weird, always magical.
I’m most impressed by her unabashed philosophies. It’s ridiculous that a feminist lean remains a dangerous stance for musicians to take, but Emilia proudly declares her ideals. (Take Is It Annoying, a feminist anthem all about ‘wanting out of the gilded cage’.) Some songs she even reminds me of a less abrasive -but equally brazen- Kathleen Hanna (see her delivery of Don’t Look for comparison, or how she belts it in Loshon Hara Barbie). There’s a lot of punk in her funky folk- if not in timbre, then attitude. Then, when she softens (as with Flying and Come Into The Light), it’s deep and sweet.
I leave you with the last song mentioned, not ‘cause it’s my favourite, but ‘cause it’s the one with a video. (Practical, no?)
