Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me

 

Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

Your mid-20s are a time of identity crisis. As Ethan Hawke says to Winona Ryder in the film Reality Bites, “the only thing you have to be by the age of 23 is yourself.” But what if you don’t know who that person is or what they should be? Few artists articulate this feeling better than Kathleen Edwards.

Born in Ottawa, Ontario but raised overseas – her father was a diplomat – she began recording in 1999 with an extremely limited EP entitled Building 55. Fast forward to 2005, and Edwards released her second full-length album Back To Me coming two years after her official debut Failer.

From the first notes, Back To Me is leaps and bounds ahead of her previous work, both in terms of maturity and execution. 

While Edwards is the main voice – and the primary author of the material here – her collaborator Colin Cripps is her secret weapon. Playing lead and/or slide guitar on every track – except the solo acoustic “Away” – as well as producing, they were a musical match in heaven. Cripps’ atmospheric, creative playing perfectly compliments Edwards’ honey and grit vocals.

In “Summerlong,” Edwards – and Cripps who co-wrote it – spin a tale comparing a temporary fling to a childhood game of hide-and-seek over chiming Rickenbacker guitars. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers even shows up on the track to add gorgeous piano touches.

And in “Copied Keys” Edwards has written possibly the saddest song about feeling alone with the one you love since “Unsatisfied” by The Replacements.

Over a crying slide guitar and violin, the narrator describes her life in the starkest terms possible – her friends, her streets, and her identity no longer belong to her.  She has been treated like a piece of furniture in her partner’s apartment. When the song reaches its climax towards the end, it is a total highlight of the album – and 2000s Americana in general.

But perhaps no song is greater than opener “In State.” Over a monster riff that will be stuck in your head for days, Edwards compares a cheating lover to an outlaw – and duly threatens to turn him into the authorities. It’s the kind of song on which entire musical careers are made.

In a just world “In State” would have been a major radio hit. In fact, if it was released in 2015 rather than 2005 it very well could’ve been.

Although she predated the alt-country renaissance by a few years, Kathleen Edwards achieved the pinnacle of the genre in Back To Me.

Zoe Records/2005

 

The Reputation – The Reputation

 

The Reputation – The Reputation

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

 

Being in a band can be tough. Playing at dingy bars, operating on very little sleep, being malnourished on long van rides. It’s no life for the faint of heart. But try doing it while attending law school. 

So was the case for Elizabeth Elmore while fronting The Reputation. While she was used to the riggers of the road – she previously fronted Champaign, IL stalwarts Sarge – she was not used to juggling that with studying for the bar. 

All of which informed her writing on The Reputation. The self-deprecating tone and power pop guitar riffs of her previous work are out in full force. But now they are flanked by the experiences of someone who has actually lived.

Take the eight-minute, mellotron flanked epic “For The Win.” Beyond the dense sonic landscape she creates, Elmore tells a story of a relationship which has become purely physical. The glacial pace only adds to the emotional resonance. 

Another set of high points are the back-to-back introspective tracks “This Town” and “Alaskan.” “This Town” describes an almost universal feeling of not fitting in and being shunned by peers.

It gets to the point that the singer blames herself for the rejection, and it’s easy to empathize with her plight. Musically the track resembles Pavement’s “Starlings of the Slipstream” with majestic electric guitars. It also features an organ solo played by Wilco’s Jay Bennett.

“Alaskan” is a mid-tempo rock song with an R&B flare to the vocals. This is where the self-deprecation comes in. Elmore seems to know that she doesn’t have the vocal chops to truly pull it off, but she sings with just enough conviction for it to avoid sounding amateurish.

Speaking of amateurs, “The Stars of Amateur Hour” is perhaps the greatest highlight. A chiming pop-punk riff introduces a sordid tale of drunk nights and hungover mornings. When Elmore quips “welcome to the grown-up world,” it is the ultimate diss on adult children.

But the album closer might be the most surprising cut. After two minutes of silence following “For The Win,” the listener is treated to a cover of “Almost Blue” by Elvis Costello. It’s just Elmore on vocals and Jay Bennett on piano, but the haunting delivery and gender reversal is oddly effective.

Elizabeth Elmore is no longer active in the music scene. She went on to be a war crimes prosecutor in The Hague, which certainly has a wider impact than leading an indie band.

Although Elmore moved onto bigger and better things outside of music, her legacy as a heart-on-the-sleeve songsmith still shines.

Initial Records/2002

 

Adam Franklin – Bolts of Melody

Adam Franklin – Bolts of Melody

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

 

You’ve led a moderately successful, highly influential band for eight years. You put out records on Creation and partied with Alan McGee. And then you break up that band, sell your studio, and go into the wilderness for a few years. 

You start cutting albums which blend your signature voice with your growing interest in samples and loops. They are not well-received.

Fast forward to 2007, and things are looking up for you again. You’ve secretly reformed your old band with the classic lineup, and plan to tour later in the year. You’ve got your own record label and have several small releases in the pipeline. But best of all, you’ve just released your first “rock” album in nine years.

So goes the story of Adam Franklin, lead singer and guitarist for Oxford quartet Swervedriver. And how does this album stack up against his past work? Pretty damn well, it turns out. Sure, there will be those that gripe about a “step backwards” whenever an artist does a return to an old sound. But it’s hard to complain when the material here is so uniformly excellent. 

“Seize The Day” is a triumphant return to the alt rock of Swervedriver’s 99^th Dream, but with swaggering wah-wah guitars and a stop-start rhythm. “Morning Rain” is a haunting slow burner with delayed slide guitars and languid yet ethereal vocals.

But the most interesting pair of tracks is the two versions of “Birdsong.” The first version subtitled “moonshiner version,” is a haunting finger picked solo guitar and vocal recording. The second is a full-band rendition with power pop guitars and a laid-back groove.

Consistency may lead to middling work in some artists, but Adam Franklin is not one of them. With Bolts of Melody, Adam Franklin may be charting familiar territory, but he is also evoking the spirit of classic Swervedriver.

Hi-Speed Soul/2007