Review: Zdan- 'So What?'
Over nearly a quarter-century, Brandy Zdan has served as a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer for some of the best artists in the Nashville area. But in all that time, she never quite felt like she had found her true self. Now she's shed the first name and, as simply Zdan, has begun to find that groove she's been looking for with So What?
Where Zdan found herself is in screaming guitar garage rock and roll, a genre she proves her adeptness in throughout So What? Nowhere is that newfound aggression more on display than on the album opener “Hell No.” Over a steady and driving drum beat, Zdan shows off her guitar slinging skills with a song that evokes the best of The Runaways, especially with the screamed chorus “What do you do when they don't care? / Do you stop? / “Hell no!” It's the first of many shots fired at the old boys' club that is Nashville's mainstream music industry.
Another standout track is “T-shirt.” Here Zdan takes on musical gatekeepers who women wearing band t-shirts or playing “men's” instruments. “do you know any chords on that guitar?” they snarl before questioning even her choice to wear her favorite band's t-shirt. “Hey, where's that t-shirt from? / Can you name one song? / Can you sing along?”
The album's title track and lead single, “So What?” is a co-write with another Nashville guitar hero, Aaron Lee Tasjan, who also lends some additional guitar muscle. The song is a middle finger to everyone who doubted Zdan or any other woman in the rock and roll world. “You want me, so what? / You need me, so what? / You leave me, so what? / Look at me, so what?”
Individualism and the transformative power of music are themes present throughout So What?. On “Save Me (Rock and Roll)”, Zdan muses on how anyone can survive living a 9-to-5 life. On “Living is a Sin”, Zdan gets a bit more introspective, noting “I don't think one man can save me / how can we be judged for just trying to live? / if to live is to just get by / then living is a sin.”
So What? is a short album, clocking in at just over 30 minutes despite its 10 tracks. But that's part of its appeal. There's a Ramones-esque urgency in the 2:30-3:00 songs that would be lost in longer compositions. And the sense of urgency pervades So What. It's an album that can be digested in one sitting, but one you'll want to come back to again and again.