Personal upheaval, grief, powerlessness, trauma, sudden change inform the title and colour the lyrics of this latest LP by the seasoned Boston indie artist but her songs are packed with brutally honest, candid, concise reflections and warm, catchy, stirring riffs and melodies. It’s her 21st solo album across more than three decades including those covering, rather eclectically, ELO, Olivia Newton-John and The Police, but not including further LPs made with a handful of bands. Underpinned by rich vocal layering not unlike that of Teenage Fanclub, as well as beautiful flute and other instrumental embellishments, strong chord and key changes, and her droll, sharp, self-deprecatory lyrics, it’s still a stirring, emotional but also entertaining listen, despite the dark places from which the songs derive inspiration. On the catchy yet dark-seam of indie-pop single Popsicle, for example: “My hopes and dreams are in decline / melting slowly like my mind / Popsicle, drip, drip.” Having uprooted from the same city apartment for 20 years to a rural town where she new no one (Where Are You Now), difficult events moments surround many of the key songs, from the death of her one of her best friends on Ashes, then her dog dying on the vividly moving Constant Companion, to her mother being diagnosed with esophagus cancer on Scratchers. Unsurprisingly she felt depressed for year (Long Slow Nervous Breakdown) as well as general trauma (Wouldn’t Change Anything, Fall Apart, and Strong Too Long. Yet despite feeling lost and very lonely, as on Harmonizing With Myself, music helps and sustains her and those self-harmonies on this track a particular beautiful and effective: “I'm never lonely harmonizing with myself / I cruise around the kitchen island / I pretend the floor is the ocean / It's one of many ways I'm reframing pain.” The same musical balm is detailed on All I’ve Got : “Melodies, they wrap around me / With constancy and healing / So many nights you saved my lifе.” Brave, candid, and also musically strong, making art out of adversity, it’s among her very finest. Out on American Laundromat Records.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Feel free to recommend more new songs and albums and comment below. You can also use the contact page, or find more on social media: Song Bar X, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: