Ora Cogan—The Quarry (2010)
Sparse early days dark night of the soul album hints at the greatness to follow.
One solitary radio play of Holy Hells on Lauren Laverne’s 6Music show a year or so ago, and I was on a ludicrous international quest to track down what else this Canadian artist had put out. It turns out…a lot.
Having a discography that stretched all the way back to 2002, I’ve been working backwards, partly because the newer stuff tends to be easier to source. Beyond that, you end up on yet another virtual crate digging quest, picking up solitary copies from obscure local record labels, and Discogs sellers thousands of miles away.
With Ora, her more recent releases bear the hallmark of experience and bigger arrangements. Go back to earlier stuff like The Quarry, and there’s a chilling sparseness to these albums. A voice, and unembellished electric guitar, maybe a haunting violin for texture. It speaks of a cafe bar artist, sat on a stool, playing to a few friends and locals, not exactly gunning for the charts. An artist happy to play the long game. Already 4 albums deep into her career, probably working a job or two alongside the creative endeavours.
In contrast to the top class newer stuff, there’s nothing remotely commercial about The Quarry or other albums around this period. I kinda like that take-it-or-leave it approach. You can also hear why the bigger indies weren’t rushing to throw money at breaking her either. We already had Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten operating in this niche.
Hearing her career in reverse, you can kinda hear where this was all heading, but the honest assessment here is Ora just got better and better as she went along. That’s not to denigrate these songs whatsoever, it’s simply that she has hit a more sophisticated and radio ready sound, and as palatable as The Quarry is when you’re in the mood, you do have to be in the mood. The songs from Formless and Bells In The Ruin lift you out of the mood. That’s the difference.
