Rating: 4/5
Review:
A nice album, but not Emily Barker's best work
I like this album, but I don't have quite the enthusiasm for it that I do for Emily Barker's work with The Red Clay Halo.
It is a good album and the overall sound is lovely. Emily Barker is a fine singer who is on good form here, and the arrangements and harmonies are all nicely done, reminding me just a little of The Civil Wars in places. There's much to like and nothing to object to at all, but...
It's hard to put my finger on my exact reservations about this album. I think it's that it sounds a little like an awful lot of other music around at the moment. Emily Barker's previous work has been so classy and distinctive with really interesting music and lyrics, and arrangements with The Red Clay Halo which really give it a sound of its own, whereas this blends slightly into the background for me. There's nothing with the really lasting quality of some of the songs on Almanac or Dear River, I think, so I am just a little disappointed in this.
Don't let me put you off; it's a perfectly decent album of good songs performed with skill and taste so perhaps it's unfair of me to carp so much. It's just that I expect something really special from Emily Barker, and this isn't particularly special. However, no-one who likes this Americana-ish genre could possibly dislike it and I can still recommend it.
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