Azure Ray
Tim Kasher
(of Cursive / The Good Life)

Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor are Azure Ray. On Hold on Love, the ladies' third full-length album, Azure Ray lets out an eloquent, reverberating, satisfying breath.

As a departure from 2001's self-titled debut and 2002's Burn & Shiver (both released on WARM Records), as well as 2002's November EP on Saddle Creek, Hold on Love was built on a bold approach — taking the ethereal aspects of Azure Ray's past work and mixing them with a more upbeat and enlivened technique. Still so visceral and intimate you can hear lips pulling apart and piano hammers striking, Hold on Love travels the aurally deeper road with layer upon layer of all-encompassing sound. And where love and loss dripped from each word on past albums, Hold on Love finds hope to round out their message.

Orenda and Maria arrived in Omaha via Athens, Georgia. True southerners at heart, their music can't help but sway and smolder like neo-American gothic balladry.