Perky goths finally develop something beyond an ironic fashion statement

Part of the goth-electronica movement, Hungry Lucy blends the milder elements of darkwave and trip-hop to create a pleasing pop sound with spooky undertones. In the vein of Switchblade Symphony and Claire Voyant, the band’s songs are carried by strong female vocals atop a bed of melancholic electronics and slow-to-mid-paced shuffle beats.

Hungry Lucy vocalist Christa Belle has a sultry but somewhat restrained style that really shines when well-produced (as in the smoky number “Journey”) but falters a bit when left more exposed (as with the Darkroom collaboration “Unhuman”). Her voice has a distinctly youthful quality, and the numerous glamour shots provided at the band’s site reinforce this impression. Could baby-faced sex pot Christa be goth’s answer to Christina Aguilera?

Hungry Lucy is currently offering a sampler CD via MP3.com’s Digital Automatic Music, or DAM, system. The songs are from a full-length album underway, to be titled Apparitions. Two of the EP’s four tracks are available as free downloads: “Bound in Blood,” an evil-tinged Industrial slow rocker, and “Journey,” a dreamy piano-driven number with heavenly vocals. The remaining tracks — “Watcher,” a more minimal but surprisingly catchy song, and “Cover Me,” a Peter Gabriel-esque track with a different vocal feel than the others — are offered as streaming files.

Also on the MP3.com site are two songs not featured on the DAM CD. Of the two, “Unhuman” is the least goth, offering up a jarringly funky side instead. The other, “Alfred,” is a sweet little duet between Christa and bandmate War-N Harrison (also a member of the electro-industrial outfit Fishtank No. 9), about an otherworldly love-interest. If any of these tracks make you hungry for more, the band’s independent Web site provides links to pages on MP3.com competitors Riffage and Vitaminic, where visitors can gain access to two additional free downloadable tracks, “Watcher,” which is only offered as a streaming file through MP3.com, and “Stretch,” which further diversifies Lucy’s electronic sound by adding folky acoustic guitar strumming and record scratching.

While not overly energetic, Hungry Lucy still makes music that’s much perkier, instrumentally, than your traditional gothic fare, though the band’s songs lyrics do deal primarily with death, ghosts, blood and the shadier side of life. Were it not for such lyrical subject matter, the “goth” label might not even come to mind; the music itself isn’t as suggestively dark as all that, nor are Christa’s rather innocent-sounding vocals. There seems to be a trend in darkwave circles toward a certain kind of female voice, one which hearkens back to the more ethereal styles defined by singers such as Suzanne Perry (Love Spirals Downwards), Lynn Canfield (The Moon Seven Times) and Juliana Townes (Area). With Christa singing lead, Hungry Lucy is at the forefront of this revival.

The band seems to be updating its site often while working on its debut CD, so it’s entirely likely that new songs may be available for download soon. Hungry Lucy should find wide appeal within the goth, electronica and alternative pop scenes thanks to the genre-agnostic format of the online music marketplace. Heck, with a face like Christa’s, the band could even open up a new area in the teen sensation market if it finds the right management. After all, if darksters Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor can be accepted as sex symbols, what’s to prevent a cute little goth girl from rising to similar stature?

Anji Bee | June 6, 2000

Anji Bee is a freelance writer and musician living in Los Angeles.

[Originally posted to RadioSpy, a subsidiary of GameSpy.com]