I should have gotten around to doing some words on this album a while back. I remember buying it and I was certainly a fan of Ms Lavere so I would have listened to it. I also remember seeing her at King Tuts a few years ago and being mightily impressed with her devil may care persona as she strolled on to the stage carrying a half empty girl sized bottle of Jack Daniels. My kind of woman, as they say. So why the lack of enthusiasm, I hear you say?
With a different producer on board – Craig Silvey – a change of approach was expected. Perhaps not in the selection of songs though as Ms Lavere drawls dramatically through her own songs and some imported words (a quirky yet stylish version of “Candle Mambo” and the only subtly produced song on the album, Jimbo Mathus’ “Lucky Boy”) with all the verve that you might expect and those who are familiar with Ms Lavere’s past output will no doubt and take comfort that she has not lost her laconic take in the many and varied ways that love and obsession can go together with “Damn Love Song” and “Cry My Eyes Out” shining out as the work of a woman with a heart.
The sound quality of this vinyl release, however, was pretty bad with the crude, compressed mix – the sleeve states that the initial recording, surprisingly, was done to tape rather than disk - proving tiring to the ears. As there was a free download coupon, a comparison was made to the 320k mp3s. They sounded as bad which suggests that the album was meant to sound like that. A strange decision given Ms Lavere’s laconic and subtle vocal style but there you go. A good album but not one that you would willingly listen to twice.