Maria Taylor:
Something About Knowing:
Saddle Creek:
Out 4th November 2013:
8/10
Never judge a book by its cover, goes the old adage. Never judge an album by its first track, goes another. Well, certainly not in the case of Maria Taylor's accomplished fifth album at any rate - in fact, you can't really judge this confident tour-de-force until the end, such is its varied, but likeable, composition.
Even at four solo albums in, Taylor's name has remained largely obscure on this side of the pond, whilst a brief dalliance as one-half of quickly-forgotten hazy pop duo Azure Ray didn't exactly propel her into everyone's lives. All of which seems a bit of a travesty, given the strength of her songwriting here.
Something About Knowing is a post-maternity album, written and recorded during and after child-birth and sounding as celebratory as the onset of motherhood itself. Opener Folk Song Melody is a pretty tune fit for a music-box, Up All Night might be a reference to her impending lack of sleep caused by a restless infant and, by the time Tunnel Vision pipes up with its clarion call chorus, you'd be forgiven for thinking Taylor has her head in the clouds and has mellowed out just a bit too much. Not so. Whilst still retaining the dream-pop essence of yore, Taylor has successfully redesigned the template for radio-friendly pop without resorting to cheap electronics or anything more subversive than slipping in a drum-machine here and there.
Musical comparisons hint at The Pierces, Goldfrapp, her own Azure Ray, plus feminine versions of M Ward/She and Him and Mercury Rev, a sort of bar-room blues-cum-country dream-pop hybrid. Only the title-track gets a bit sugary after a while - the remainder of the album being a pleasing easy-going 30-odd minutes to spend time with. The closing A Lullaby For You is perhaps the album's unexpected centre-piece, brimming with sweeping atmospherics and the simplest of harmonies that should convert the most hard-hearted to join in.
Something About Knowing:
Saddle Creek:
Out 4th November 2013:
8/10
Even at four solo albums in, Taylor's name has remained largely obscure on this side of the pond, whilst a brief dalliance as one-half of quickly-forgotten hazy pop duo Azure Ray didn't exactly propel her into everyone's lives. All of which seems a bit of a travesty, given the strength of her songwriting here.
Something About Knowing is a post-maternity album, written and recorded during and after child-birth and sounding as celebratory as the onset of motherhood itself. Opener Folk Song Melody is a pretty tune fit for a music-box, Up All Night might be a reference to her impending lack of sleep caused by a restless infant and, by the time Tunnel Vision pipes up with its clarion call chorus, you'd be forgiven for thinking Taylor has her head in the clouds and has mellowed out just a bit too much. Not so. Whilst still retaining the dream-pop essence of yore, Taylor has successfully redesigned the template for radio-friendly pop without resorting to cheap electronics or anything more subversive than slipping in a drum-machine here and there.
Musical comparisons hint at The Pierces, Goldfrapp, her own Azure Ray, plus feminine versions of M Ward/She and Him and Mercury Rev, a sort of bar-room blues-cum-country dream-pop hybrid. Only the title-track gets a bit sugary after a while - the remainder of the album being a pleasing easy-going 30-odd minutes to spend time with. The closing A Lullaby For You is perhaps the album's unexpected centre-piece, brimming with sweeping atmospherics and the simplest of harmonies that should convert the most hard-hearted to join in.