Album Review: Sara Watkins is young in all the wrong ways

Album Review: Sara Watkins’ “Young in All the Wrong Ways”

Sara Watkins has never seemed quite ready for the limelight despite her demonstrated ability on multiple instruments, her 18-year tenure with Nickel Creek, touring with acts like Jackson Browne and the Decemberists, and recording several solo albums. “Young in All the Wrong Ways” is her third solo project since 2009, and it comes with all the hallmarks of a major career statement: an image change (she’s now sporting nerdy Buddy Holly glasses), professional videos, and a new label. She’s certainly familiar by now to followers of Americana, but her latest record might be a bid for a wider audience. If so, it seems to be working. In July, “Young in All the Wrong Ways” reached the top of Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, and it was also a top 10 independent album.

“Young in All the Wrong Ways” offers many examples of Watkins’ wide range. The title song kicks off the album, erupting into a defiant rock number with two electric guitars. “I’ve got the miles and God knows I’ve got the fight,” Watkins sings. It’s a bold, bracing beginning, and suggests that Watkins has reinvented herself. And for the first half of the album, at least, the party is contagious. “One Last Time” is a rousing country stomp, complete with fiddle, acoustic guitar, and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James contributing harmony vocals. The powerful chorus of “Move Me” reflects the yearning of a woman in a dull, repetitive relationship, and Watkins’ vocals are strikingly emotive. The song could easily be heard as a metaphor for Watkins’ career thus far: accomplished and stable, but lacking that extra something.

One way the album tries to create that spark is by employing an impressive roster of guest players. Benmont Tench, best known for his work with Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, contributes organ on several songs. Americana favorites Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan add harmony vocals, and famed producer and composer Jon Brion plays on nearly every track. Watkins, surprisingly, limits herself largely to vocals on the album, and though hers is not a showy voice, it’s a quietly confident one, and the contributing musicians frame it well.

Watkins, surprisingly, limits herself largely to vocals on the album, and though hers is not a showy voice, it’s a quietly confident one, and the contributing musicians frame it well.

With “Like New Year’s Day,” a soft number with evocative lyrics, the album hits a mid-record lull, as if the demonstrative songs of the first half had been too much of a workout. “California’s still fast asleep,” Watkins sings, and the next few tracks might put you there, too. “Say So” is a bland, mid-tempo song that isn’t particularly memorable, and though “Without a Word” opens with a promising Tench organ solo and some lovely harmony vocals from O’Donovan, it’s more of the same. Things pick up a bit with “The Truth Won’t Set Us Free,” a good ol’ fashioned honky tonk complete with thumping bass, Floyd Cramer-style piano (Tench again) and Watkins on fiddle. It’s a good recovery, but one wishes there were more songs like it and the title song. Watkins has the skills, and she needs an album that allows her to loosen up and go to some new places in her music.

One place she should probably avoid is the realm of music video. There are two official videos from the album so far. The first, for the title track, suggests Watkins is not quite used to lip-syncing yet, which maybe just indicates that she is one for authenticity in her performances. Several scenes in the video look like they were filmed on a particularly chilly morning, and Watkins looks uncomfortable in a thin dress. The other video, for “Move Me,” is reminiscent of the worst excesses of MTV. Watkins sits at the head of a dinner table as the other diners (family? Friends? Under-employed extras?) pass around plates and converse until the chorus of the song erupts, and Watkins starts banging her hands on the table. It’s a ridiculous video that adds nothing to the song and makes Watkins look even more awkward. For now, these songs are best enjoyed without visuals, but you should probably watch “Move Me” at least once for the kitsch factor.

Many of the songs on “Young in All the Wrong Ways” represent love broken or about to break, and the final song on the album, “Tenderhearted,” is a kind of quiet prayer that seems to provide some insight into Watkins’ personality: “I built a wall around my heart, keep it in and keep it out / But nothing when surrounded survives but fear and doubt.” Watkins is primed for pop stardom, and she deserves a shot at it, assuming she can get that lip-syncing down. “It’s the tenderhearted who let life overflow,” she concludes. Here’s one listener who hopes she does not go quietly.

Articles related to “Album Review: Sara Watkins Is Young in All the Wrong Ways”

Album Review: Margo Price’s “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” is retro country-western

The undeniable chemistry of Guest House

Album review: Radiohead’s “A Moon Shaped Pool” will break your frozen heart