Friday, March 28, 2008

I guess the point is i really fucking love this album

Ok in the last blog i wrote i said i'd bought the new Kathleen Edwards album ' Asking for Flowers'. So i'll give a quick review for you all. The review is this BUY IT. Get over the fact that it's a girl singing. Get over the fact that she has a country twang to her and BUY this album.
I've been a fan of Kathleen Edwards since her first album 'Failer' came out in 2002. It was a great pissed of country album. She wrote great songs about drinking, bars, sex, drugs, loss. Now i know what your thinking. My baby took my dog i'm gonna drink and be a cowboy music is crap. It is. All of it. This is different. The reason is that Kathleen edwards is an incredible lyrisist. She tells these brief little stories and builds the songs around them. They're much more touching and emotionally powerful because of her abilities as a songwritter.
'Asking for Flowers' is a big shift from her first two albums. She's grown comfortable in her skin. While her second album 'Back to Me' was better then 'Failer' because it took the anger and sorrow up a notch, 'Flowers' is better then 'Back to Me' because it tones everything down and really looks inward. These songs are very personal. Specific moments in her life are laid out to pen a complete picture of Edwards' life.
Let's just take one line from the title song apart. This is a song about a woman in a long term relationship comming to terms with her lover not really loving her. Her life has been less then it could be because of this man. '' Asking for flowers, is like asking you to be nice. Don't tell me your to tired, ten years i've been working nights'' everything you need to know about that couple is right there in that line. Working class low income family. He's mean to her and doesn't buy her flowers, which is all she really wants from him. Yet she still wants to love him and again he pushes her away saying he's just to tired. All of this tied into a single line of her song.
The singer songwriter is the most self centered type of music. No matter what you do your paining a self portrait. People assume they know you by the way you come across in your songs. Nina Nastasia is a dark eyed lady of the night, Kristen Hersh is pretty fucking crazy, Joni Mitchell is much smarter and much sadder then anyone else on the planet. These are all stereotypes i get from listening to my favorite female singer songwritters. Kathleen Edwards is a girl who can drink you under the table, fuck your brains out, come home covered in dirt after being away for 4 days and who beats the shit and trashes the car of someone who does her wrong.
Ok this is getting all disjointed in long because i didn't prewrite and i'm at the library and can't listen to the person i'm talking baout. So i'll wrap it up.
This is a great album. Start to finish every song is solid and i haven't skipped a song. I've bought about 20 albums in the last month and this one is getting pretty much all of my time. Buy it, listen to it and love it.

2 comments:

Dan said...

I own failer. I listen to it occasionally but apparently never gave it the time it deserved. I'm listening to some of flowers with a new perspective - with the expectation to fucking love this album too. if nothing else I'm impressed with her tour dates, covering Boston to Alberta in just over a month.

Unknown said...

never heard of her before, but pretty good. listening to her myspace page right now-- i really like that asking for flowers song.