Just in case I forgot to mention it, Kathleen Edwards' excellent new album Asking For Flowers will be released today on Rounder Records in the US. I can't say enough great things about it (or can I?). Put this on your list of must-buys for March. You can hear all of the tracks over at Kathleen's MySpace page.
And happy Election Day to all of you Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont residents! Don't forget to vote.
UPDATE: PopMatters gives Asking For Flowers an 8 out of 10.
UPDATE II: Thanks to Suzanna, administrator of unofficial fan site, for a link to a really nice segment on the CBC. Watch it here.
As usual, Josh Hurst has beat me to the punch, but since Kathleen Edwards' new album Asking For Flowers (due tomorrow) has been so heavily rotated in my home lately, I thought I should add my two cents. In short, Edwards has perfected the approach that she pursued on her excellent - albeit uneven - first two albums. Asking For Flowers shows significant musical growth, while leaving some of her charming rough edges intact. Who else among earnest female singer-songwriters could pull off the hilarious kiss-offs of "The Cheapest Key" and "I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory"? Without skipping a beat, Edwards is able to break your heart just as effortlessly, with the gut-wrenching "Alicia Ross" and the deeply personal "Scared At Night." Though there are a few more pedal steel touches on this album, no one should mistake Edwards as a "country" or "folk" artist. She claims Tom Petty, not Lucinda, as her musical role model, and she is always one step closer to the rock world than anything on the other side of the fence. Just check out the Springsteen-like urgency of "Oil Man's War" or the Crazy Horse scorched earth of "Oh Canada." And the title track, which offers little slices of detail without becoming too specific, is definitely the closest thing I've heard to a perfect song in quite a while.
For the first time, Edwards keeps a sharp focus on the melodies for the length of an entire record. On her previous outings, every memorable tune was matched by several songs that fell back on minor-key similarity. Occasionally, Edwards still lets things slip away - I'm not sure how you excuse the dead flat wailing that ends "The Cheapest Key," for instance. Edwards, for all of her maturation as a singer and songwriter, still sounds like a young artist letting it spill from the gut. That still serves Edwards - not even yet 30 years of age - quite well. But she might need to carefully consider her next move. Having perfected her signature sound on Asking For Flowers, the next album will need to move her in a new direction or two.
However, in the meantime, let us celebrate the release of Asking For Flowers, Edwards' finest record to date and one of my early favorites of the year. In fact, it is the only album right now seriously competing with Tift Merritt's Another Country, an album that moves in an entirely different direction and in some ways complements Edwards' latest quite nicely.
(Asking For Flowers will be released tomorrow on Rounder Records.)
UPDATE: I noticed I'm getting a lot of hits off this post. Now I feel like I should've put more effort into my review, but a few aborted attempts were too wordy and drifted off course. Still, I thought I might mention a few more points about Asking For Flowers, those subtle things that really set it off for me:
UPDATE II: Earlier I mentioned that I was clocking a lot of hits today. I should thank both Sam Phillips and Kathleen Edwards for generating the most traffic I've ever had in a single day. I won't tell you how many hits that is (a laughably low number as blogs go, I assure you), but I still sailed pass my previous daily high. Sam and Kathleen may not have the biggest fanbases in the world, but they've some of the most obsessive. And thanks to all of you obsessive types for stopping by.
You can hear Kathleen Edwards' new album Asking For Flowers in its entirety at Kathleen's MySpace page. Kathleen will also be featured in the penultimate issue of No Depression, due on newsstands any day now.
The album will be released this coming Tuesday, March 4. BTW, my wife claims I never miss an opportunity to use the word "penultimate" - and as usual, she is correct.
A few early reviews are trickling in for Kathleen Edwards' new album Asking For Flowers, which will be released on March 4:
Paste also gives the album four stars in the new issue, calling it "mesmerizing" (no online review available yet). For my part, I've been listeing to it constantly, and I can tell you it is awesome. Asking For Flowers and Tift's new one are currently battling it out for my favorite, depending on my mood. I've always liked Kathleen, but this album brings together all elements of her talent into a cohesive package. Her best by far.
(You can hear six tracks from the album on Kathleen's website. Don't forget to bid on that custom iPod!)
You can hear two new tracks on Kathleen Edward's MySpace page. "Oil Man's War" and "Alicia Ross" are newly available, in addition to the six songs streaming on her website. So by this point, you should be able to conclude that Asking For Flowers is going to be one of the best albums so far in 2008.
If, like me, you've been trolling about for some more fixes from Kathleen Edwards' upcoming release Asking For Flowers, you might want to check out the Rounder Records podcast which this month features the title track. A real heartacher, by the way. The track can be found at the 29:22 mark. Download here or from iTunes.
Two other tracks are available at Kathleen's MySpace site. Also, her official site will supposedly be updated tomorrow, February 4. Asking For Flowers will be released exactly one month from then on March 4.
UPDATE: The new site is up and streaming six songs in all.
