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Vernon is Edwards’ current partner as well as musical collaborator, and it’s easy to infer that he is also the subject of a number of these songs – lines like "Out of the cameras and the lights / You’re a chameleon" lend themselves to conjecture – but, either way, Voyageur is full of ruminations on love and loss. Lyrically it’s never quite as poetically penetrative as one might hope, but it is spotted with beautiful details – "If I fall behind could you leave me a sign / Breadcrumbs in the shape of an arrow" – and an alluring, articulate transparency, especially on Pink Champagne, a sad, honest recollection of her wedding day. (The marriage failed.)
It’s the performances and songwriting, however, which invite most acclaim. Between them, Edwards and Vernon have cast her work in a warm, autumnal light, calling upon a small crew of tried and trusted musicians, including the perennially underrated Jim Bryson, to whom she credits the success of the FM radio-friendly Sidecar, and Norah Jones, who lends her voice to the closing seven-minute lament, For the Record. Leaning on the sounds of modern day Americana, but giving them a contemporary gloss – much as Vernon did for his own most recent album – Edwards is as capable of cantering through the upbeat sweetness of Empty Threat as slowing things down for the mournful, earnest A Soft Place To Land, to which Vernon adds graceful harmonies. The simple pop pleasures of recent single Change the Sheets veer eerily close to early work by The Cranberries, it can’t be denied, but on Mint she offers a feminine take on the mature AOR of Springsteen and Petty.
Though she bears comparison to the likes of Gillian Welch, Shelby Lynne and Aimee Mann, Edwards has an appeal of her own. That it took the intervention of a star producer to bring her to our attention says as much about how we discover music as it does about her own need to find the right collaborator to bring out her best.
--Wyndham Wallace
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Customer Reviews
And she's fantastic live.
I am so glad I did.
I was unsure on the 1st listen but having played it a few times I love it.
It sounds different from her previous albums, more of a polished pop sound.
But this doesn't make it any less of a great album.
Kathleen's voice is as lovely as ever and there is not a weak song on it.
Change the Sheets, Sidecar and Mint are great catchy country/pop songs. Soft Place to Land and House Full of Empty Rooms are lovely ballads with some gorgeous harmony vocals.
Highly recommended.
The overriding impressions of the album is that this is a set of very well crafted, very radio friendly songs with tunes that will stay with the listener long after the CD has been ejected. It's not in any way a criticism to say that this music fits very neatly into the daytime Radio 2 formula; songs that have great hooks, tell stories but don't require too much cerebral effort. The opening "Empty Threat" typifies this style, bringing to mind the likes of (a gentler voiced) Neko Case combined with The Sundays "Here's where the story ends". And this is a style that prevails throughout. All is light and breezy, summery in many places but with enough distorted guitars and little lyrical weirdnesses to ensure that the sunlight doesn't fall into all the dark corners.
The highlight of the album "Change the sheets" comes on like Fleetwood Mac thrown into a room with Neko Case (again) and shows perhaps the most Bon Iverish touches on the album in the superb intro and main hook. A mention also for some of the slower numbers on the album. Edwards' voice and songwriting are at their most emotional on tracks like "House full of empty rooms'.
Nothing particularly radical here but superb adult-oriented songwriting combined with fine musicianship and one of the best voices you'll hear make for a very satisfying listen.
I would agree with a previous reviewer that those new to Kathleen Edwards would be... Read more
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