Around the Fire
Eddi Reader Reignites Folk
After enduring many incarnations during her musical career, Eddi Reader will release her tenth studio album entitled Love is the Way (Rough Trade) on April 21, 2009. The album began as extra tracks written for what would have become a “Best Of” release, but Reader loved the songs so much that she decided to focus on completing a full-length album of new material.
This is great background music for a backyard barbecue or for hanging out around a fire toasting marshmallows, but probably won’t stand as one of the “Greatest Records of All Time.” Opening with a simple waltz called “Dragonflies,” the record as a whole gives me images of the country, lemonade and humidity. Reader’s voice is undeniably beautiful, almost unbelievably gorgeous, but I wish she had better lyrics to sing with it, rather than “We all feel helpless once in a while.” Initially I chalked it up to a fluke – the entire album couldn’t possibly be this cliché. Could it?
Yes, yes it could.
Maybe it’s my cynical side, but I get all twitchy listening to an album filled almost entirely with gushy-beyond-belief love songs. If most of the songs weren’t jam-packed with one cliché after another, it would be a great “feel good” record – the music alone is enough to make you smile, but not enough to make me love all the songs. The album’s title track, “Love is the Way,” is most guilty of being trite. Apparently our “female lead” was “in a haze” before she met this fantastic guy (who we never see because she never describes him), but now “love is the way” he leads her (to what, we never know). With lines like “All the moments we share just between me and you / Are among those I care to treasure my whole life through…” I’m a little envious of this love, but if it’s this boring, why would anyone want to follow this guy wherever he’s going?
“It’s Magic” had promise because if its Billie Holiday-esque vocals, but once again, Reader can’t seem to escape the trap of the cliché. I think during the course of this album, I’ve heard her use the phrase “in your arms” at least a dozen times. But my sentimental side keeps kicking the crap out of my cynical side, and this song kind of makes me wish I had a guy to slow dance with to it.
Despite all the smooshy lovey-dovey stuff on this record, there are some great songs that I found myself humming days after first listening to them. “Dandelion” is the most noteworthy track because in addition to its folksy, country sound, Reader infuses it with a jazziness that puts me in a riverside bar on a hot night, colored lights strung around the patio, sipping gin... Aaahhh, summer…
As a whole, the album tells a love story from beginning to end. I will admit it took me a while to like the female “character” in this story – it took me until the last song, but anyone would like her after listening to “I Won’t Stand in Your Way.” This beautiful, soulful, heartbreaking is the only track on the album that doesn’t have that “down country” feeling, and here Reader finally abandons the gushy love stuff. We can still feel the female leads affection for this guy, but now we know she isn’t willing to let him mess with her. She’s letting him go out tonight, but she probably won’t be there when he gets back.
Eddi Reader gives us folk with a jazzy twist on Love is the Way. If you can get past the clichés, and the fact that Reader starts to repeat her sentiments towards the end of the album, then it’s worth a listen. The album stakes itself in its musical quality and the beauty of Reader’s voice, but it could’ve been about five tracks shorter.
For more information visit www.eddireader.co.uk or www.myspace.com/eddireader.
