Album review: “To The Sunset” by Amanda Shires
Amanda Shires’ new album, “To The Sunset,” might surprise longtime fans with a change in her sonic direction, but this record finds the singer-songwriter still attempting to change “that Nashville sound,” as her husband, Jason Isbell, sang on his last album.
Shires has embraced a harder-edged, more rock ‘n’ roll vibe, without losing those sublime qualities that make her music both unique and endearing.
Shires’ past releases — both as a solo artist and through collaborations with bands like the Thrift Store Cowboys — were grounded fairly solidly in country music. But it wasn’t the “country” music you hear on modern country radio. It had more in common with the tunes of Dolly Parton than simply the sound of Shires’ voice.
But on Isbell’s stellar 2017 album, “The Nashville Sound,” he seemed to reference a frustration with the Music City culture, singing, “Mama wants to change that Nashville sound / But they’re never gonna let her.”
Now on “To The Sunset,” her sixth solo release, Shires has embraced a harder-edged, more rock ‘n’ roll vibe without losing those sublime qualities that make her music both unique and endearing.
No, her fiddle isn’t nearly as prominent, and many of the songs have a vocal effect that could be off-putting at first. Fans might find themselves yearning for the starkness of her distinctive vocal flutter that made songs like “Upon Hearing Violins” and “Sloe Gin” so special.
Southern Utah fans might be especially attached to that pre-Isbell era of Shires’ music when she performed from time to time at Groovacious and Groovefest in Cedar City as part of the Thrift Store Cowboys.
But give this record a chance. Let her reveal the intricacies of this new sonic landscape she is exploring. It’s worth the ride.
There’s a slight echo to her voice as she sings, “I never learned the names, the space between the stars, the shapes that constellations make,” on the album opener, “Parking Lot Pirouette,” but that adorable vocal flutter is still there, accenting all the right words. By the time she reaches the soaring chorus, the echo is even more pronounced, but it suddenly makes sense.
The most surprising departure here is the hard-hitting “Eve’s Daughter” with its crunchy guitars and rhythmic vocal flow: “We didn’t have much in common but I had fallen / I was thirsty and he looked like water / When I started to show he proposed / For a while we were in tall cotton / He started coming home high and then came the fights / And I did what I had to do.”
Shires’ tunes have gained a tantalizing shimmer that only makes them more intriguing.
A driving, New-Wavey bass line propels “Take On The Dark” while it’s all about synthesizers on “Mirror, Mirror,” yet they never lose that special something that makes it clear they are from the brilliant musical mind of Amanda Pearl Shires.
It might be tempting to compare this musical shift to the likes of Taylor Swift’s transition from country to pop, but it’s nothing like that. Swift’s music went downhill when she sold out to the glam and glitter, but Shires’ tunes have gained a tantalizing shimmer that only makes them more intriguing.
Tracks like “Leave It Alone” retain Shires’ characteristic songwriting style (“Storm-light through windows paints everything shades of neglected fish tank green.”) but encloses it within a killer hook. Similarly, “Charms” sounds just like a track you might find on one of her earlier albums, but with more of a professionally produced sound.
While the new direction is beguiling, Pearl does give us a few welcome references back to her classic sound with tracks like “White Feather.” The effervescent Gillian Welch shows up on backing vocals as Shires sings, “It could be learned behavior / To fold and call it failure / Cuz you’re terrified of showing your hand.”
There is also a lyrical connection to her earlier work, including an occasional take on dark subject matter. From the slow-building terror of “Wasn’t I Paying Attention?” (which adopts the murder ballad formula to tell the tale of a suicide bomber who borrows her truck) to “Break Out The Champagne” (a darkly humorous tune that references the apocalypse, a plane crash, and a bad breakup) there are plenty of lyrics here that remind us of tracks like 2009’s revenge tale “I Kept Watch Like Doves.”
But if you’re still missing classic Pearl, she’s got a treat for you. On her last album, 2016’s “My Piece Of Land,” Shires resurrected “Mineral Wells” from 2009’s “West Cross Timbers.” Now she has re-recorded the lovely “Swimmer,” a standout track from 2011’s near-perfect “Carrying Lightning.” This version of “Swimmer” retains that lovely bittersweet melody, but in place of the whistle (or the violin on the instrumental version) it’s piano and guitar instead. And it’s still absolutely lovely.
Shires set a high bar with “Carrying Lightning,” an album this critic picked for his favorite release of 2011. That bar was so high that her last two efforts, 2013’s “Down Fell The Doves” and “My Piece Of Land,” were both a little disappointing. But with “To The Sunset,” she has finally met that bar again and perhaps even surpassed it.
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