Review Roundup: New Releases From Emily Duff, Nobody's Girl, and Jim Lauderdale
Every week, even within the confines of Americana, there are more albums released than one part-time journalist can cover. Most weeks you just pick the one or two you like most and regretfully leave the rest on the table. But Jul. 23 and 30 are unusual in that there are both a higher number of album releases than normal and also a higher number that I would not be doing you justice as listeners if I didn't tell you about them. So this week I've got an album review roundup with albums by Emily Duff, Nobody's Girl, and Jim Lauderdale.
Emily Duff- Razor Blade Smile- Jul. 23
Outside of Americana my go-to genre of music is heavy metal. In that genre, it's often pretty easy to get a feel for the style of the artists by their album covers; the monstrous grin of Iron Maiden's Eddie, the diaphanous gowns and serene calm of various symphonic metal acts, the gore of black metal. But that's rarely the case with Americana. But the cover of Emily Duff's Razor Blade Smile tells you most of what you need to know about her style. The cowboy hat, the leather, the clenched fists. That's Emily Duff. Razor Blade Smile sounds like Lucinda Williams filtered through Exene Cervenka with Willie Nile and Little Steven Van Zandt sitting in. Even in the genre blender that is Americana, a punk garage country psychobilly roots rock album is an outlier. It's strange, but it works.
Essential Listens: “Razor Blade Smile”, “Go Fast, Don't Die”
Nobody's Girl- Nobody's Girl- Jul. 30
Nobody's Girl is made up of standout Austin solo artists Rebecca Loebe, Betty Soo, and Grace Pettis. They turned some heads in 2018 with their EP Waterline and, after a COVID enforced timeout, have finally capitalized on that good press with their self-titled debut LP. The album floats between pure Americana and dream pop with ease, displaying airtight harmonies that are difficult to believe from a young side project. The beautiful harmonies help ease the sting of “Great Divide”, a song that laments the nation's extreme political division (something one would imagine a group from Texas would know a thing or two about), but also bring an appropriately Wizard of Oz technicolor shimmer to “Kansas.” The album also flips the classic country “woman laments her husband's bad behavior” trope with two songs. “Rescued” is a middle finger to anyone who, to quote Soo “tries to mansplain my bad decisions to me.” “What'll I Do” details a relationship that is explosive, both in sexual chemistry and in its capacity to lay waste to everything around it.
Essential Listens: “Tiger by the Toe”, “So Far Away” (a cover of the Carole King classic featuring the piano used on both on Tapestry and Joni Mitchell's Blue).
Jim Lauderdale- Hope- Jul. 30
If you've ever met Jim Lauderdale or even seen him in concert from the first five or so rows, it will come as no surprise that his “pandemic album” is titled Hope. Lauderdale is probably the most optimistic, and energetic, person I've ever met; like Mr. Rogers after a six pack of Red Bull. Hope tackles the anxieties, the loneliness, the loss of life, and the unfortunate partisan rancor around the pandemic with a mixture of serenity (“Breathe Real Slow”), hopeful optimism (“Mushrooms Are Growing After the Rain”), and remembrance (“Memory”, an appropriately titled final rewrite with frequent collaborator and famed Grateful Dead songwriter Robert Hunter). Hope is a much needed cooling salve for the burn we've all endured over the last year.
Essential Listens: “Opportunity to Help Somebody Through It”, the ode to pandemic frontline workers “Brave One.”)