By: Nora E. Lindner
Rating: 9/11

Vaudeville, burlesque, punk cabaret -- these are just some of the descriptives that come to mind from the opening piano of People Eating People’s self-titled debut (The Control Group LLC, 2009). People Eating People is Nouela Johnston. Based in Seattle, Johnston (formerly of Mon Frere) has created something unique and fresh, a mix of olde tyme entertainment and modern musical expressions. The album opens with a showstopper in the song "Darling." 

Her voice is melodic and charming, but her words are often sardonic and darkly humorous. "Don't need supernatural help, I can fuck things up myself" she says in "Supernatural Help," and you can almost hear her ironic smile. The combination is something like Fiona Apple at the circus, or Amanda Palmer circa The Dresden Dolls without the mimes.  

Johnston has the natural gift of creating a spectacle of music and she does most of it herself playing piano, rhodes, and bass. The minor keys give her music the dark flavor that contrasts nicely with the flamboyance of the orchestration. "I Hate All My Friends" is alternately funny and true, and Johnston pounds the chords and slides through the scales with all the vehemence of betrayal, while she grits out some harsh honesty in the lyrics, “I hate all my friends because all they do is lie through their teeth.”

In contrast, “For Now” is a sweet little ditty with just as much bitterness, but one that comes out in a completely different key. “Supernatural Help” presents pessimistic self-assessment in gentle intonation, sprinkled with epic crescendos of emotion. 

“Let’s Rage” finishes out the album with a slow-building call to arms. While perhaps less of a pageant than some of the other tracks, this song shows People Eating People’s paired down brilliance. “I’m no one special,” Johnston sings, but she may not be aware of her own contradiction. “Let’s Rage” shows, in four minutes, that, whether or not you buy this album, it’s just the opening act for a talent itching to debut.