Martha Wainwright 

Teetering on the jagged edge between lyrical poetry and poetic profanity, Martha Wainwright’s eponymous full-length CD (not to be confused with her self-titled 1999 EP) alternates between bare-bones folk melodies and full-on rockers, with very few stops in between. Wainwright has the ability to shock her audience lyrically with folk-rock guitar songs like “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” (“Poetry has no place for a heart that’s a whore...”) and then croon to them in her jazzy, idiosyncratic contralto over Garth Hudson’s bluesy saxophone on the next track, “TV Show.” Elsewhere the rollicking rocker “Ball and Chain” with its sinister guitars and incendiary refrain (“You’re all the same with your balls and your chains...”) gives way to the musical minimalism of “Don’t Forget,” a poetic song of obsessive love (“Fall it cools, the winter it snows, spring it rains, summer comes and you go...”). Such disparate sonic landscapes permeate Wainwright’s album, tied together by her confessional songwriting style and savage guitar strums. Only her musical rendition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Whither Must I Wander” with its piano and harp arrangement seems out of place. Martha Wainwright is a provocative coming-of-age collection about love lost and promises broken.

Calexico/Iron and Wine
In the Reins
Overcoat Recordings

Although significantly mellower and less provocative than Martha Wainwright, In the Reins, the collaborative EP from Calexico and Sam Beam of Iron and Wine, is just as musically diverse. Ranging from the opening track’s soaring pedal steel, Western percussion, and bridge featuring a Spanish aria by Mexican vocalist Salvador Duran to the closing song’s acoustic guitar and vibraphone minimalism, In the Reins is a collection of first-person reminiscences written by Beam and backed by Calexico’s six-man touring ensemble that draws on the musical influences of both bands to create a collection full of pop aesthetics and catchy melodies. “A History of Lovers” features pop-rock guitars, swinging Vegas trumpets, and a driving percussive melody, while “Red Dust” features blues guitar riffs and southern-infused harmonica. The album’s true standout track, however, is the decidedly low-key “Burn That Broken Bed,” which features beautifully interwoven breathy vocals by Beam and Calexico frontman Joey Burns and a jazzy trumpet solo worthy of Miles Davis. While on paper this collaboration might seem a bit of a mismatch, the end result is a striking combination of musical styles that produces a collection that is both diverse and unified.   

Freakwater
Thinking of You...
Thrill Jockey

Originally known for their old-time acoustic folk songs, Kentucky-based Freakwater surprised fans and critics alike when they went electric on 1999's End Time. Their latest album, Thinking of You..., is a further departure from their acoustic roots, featuring pedal steel, electric guitar, organ, and drums (courtesy of Chicago-based labelmates Califone). Drunken nights, pill-popping, and broken hearts are still at the root of Freakwater’s lyrics, honky-tonk and old-school country music their core musical influences. Their vocal harmonies – Janet Bean’s twangy soprano soaring above Catherine Irwin’s nasal voice and dry delivery – are still tight and unique. However, guitar feedback and rock percussion make their Freakwater debut on “Buckets of Oil,” a slow-starting acoustic number, with oblique references to the American invasion of Iraq, that builds into an all-out rocker. The following track, “So Strange,” is a guitar-driven Tex-Mex and rockabilly rave-up, while the album’s closer, “High Ho Silver,” features a percussive rock chorus, a horn section, and the immortal refrain “Tell me why your God is so divine” (surely a question for these times) before disappearing into echoing reverb. With Thinking of You... Freakwater continues to move toward a rock and honky-tonk sensibility that incorporates lyrical irony and elements of their folk roots.