"Sometimes there's a choir in my head singing at the top of their voice. Singing at the top of their voice, they sing "Don't look back, don't be scared."
-"Engine To Turn" by Tift Merritt
Once upon a time, Tift Merritt was the next-big-thing, either in the Alt.Country universe or even in the regular Country universe (she did, after all, receive an inexplicable Best Country Album Grammy nomination for the genre-bending Tambourine). For obvious reasons - let's call them "sales numbers" - Universal subsidiary Lost Highway unceremoniously dumped Merritt, partially explaining a four year absence before releasing Another Country in 2008 on Concord Music's Fantasy label. That album went a long way in resetting expectations for Merrit's music, largely abandoning the rock-n-soul throwdown approach that highlighted Tambourine as well as Merritt's gritty live performances. What emerged in its place was an uncommonly thoughtful and graceful artist, equally at ease behind a grand piano as she was fronting her soulful band.
See You On The Moon only reinforces the notion Tift Merritt is most at home in her introspective skin, and the new record certainly builds on the success of Another Country. Most importantly, with the help of producer Tucker Martine she has found new ways to frame her music that are surprising yet subtle. The album's opener "Mixtape" is perhaps the most surprising, drenched in 1970's R&B conventions complete with dramatic stabs of strings. If Merritt was looking to throw down the gauntlet to declare her diversity, she chose a heckuva great opening track. However, skeptical fans will be relieved to hear the second track "Engine To Turn" which manages the neat trick of being melancholy and sublimely hopeful at the same time. Thanks to a gently swelling arrangement, it may also be the most beautifully produced song she's ever recorded (though that honor could easily go instead to the fifth track "Feel Of The World", which features My Morning Jacket's Jim James on ghostly backing vocals).
The album's second half is highlighted by a muscular cover of Emmit Rhodes' "Live Till You Die" and a return to the classic R&B vibe with "Papercut". The album's home stretch turns delicate with a trio of songs starting with the title track. It is followed by lovely take on the Anne Murray (!) hit "Danny's Song" before winding up with the socially conscious "After Today". Closing out a record with three mellow performances is perhaps not the most advisable commercial move, but it's really with these songs that you appreciate the depth of Merritt's singing and performing talent. There's really no other singer that I can call to mind (okay, maybe Patty Griffin or Emmylou Harris) who so pours her heart and soul into her songs the way Merritt does so completely.
What Tift Merritt does so well - and what so few other singer-songwriters do - is tackle heartwrenching themes while finding the hope buried underneath. At times, one gets the impression that her own music career has required more perseverence than even Merritt thought she had. That she's found more success on her new label and built a committed fanbase with little more than beautiful music and hard work should be a lesson to aspiring musicians, if not the music industry at large. If this album has a weak spot, it's that the good material on the album's second half is a bit overshadowed by its nearly flawless first half. It's a mild criticism to note that See You On The Moon merely builds upon her previous three excellent records, rather than transcend them completely. That's a tall order for an artist as consistent as Tift Merritt, but I'm fairly certain - based on abundance evidence here - that such a record is still very much in her future.
In the meantime, you can be sure that See You On The Moon is one of the best records you'll hear this year.
(You can hear SYOTM in its entirety over at Spinner. Tift's homemade video for "Mixtape" can be seen here.)
