From Amazon.com
In 1994, Kristin Hersh took a sabbatical from her beloved and beleaguered Throwing Muses to record her first solo album,
Hips and Makers. Mostly acoustic, entirely personal,
Hips' songs touch the core of Hersh's daily life, specifically as it involves her husband and family, topics she rarely explored with her band. Produced by ex-Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye,
Hips and Makers infuses the singer/songwriter tradition with a jolt of complexity and authority. Hersh still favors the taut, stream of consciousness lyrics she whittled down to the bone with the Muses, but she never veers into confessional "dear diary" territory, although she does allow peeks into a world where clotheslines, bee stings, and the occasional ghost aren't unusual. Musically more measured and clearly quieter than any Muses disc,
Hips showcases Hersh's fluttery voice atop powerful acoustic guitar with flourishes from cello and piano. "Your Ghost," the album's moody and dazzling opener, features backup vocals by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and sets the tone for the album: like a family, it's happy on the surface, intriguing when explored.
--Shawn Stewart
CD Description
HIPS AND MAKERS is the first solo outing from Kristen Hersh, frontwoman and singer-songwriter of Throwing Muses, the seminal '80s alt-rock group. Whereas Muses records prove that Hersh can imbue her dark, singular vision with enough edgy sonic aggression to garner underground kudos, this disc explores her softer, more lyrical tendencies. The album is whollyacoustic, augmented throughout with bass, guitar overdubs, and tasteful string arrangements. Such instrumentation perfectly suits Hersh's web-like song structures and her gift foraching melodicism.
As one expects from Hersh, the album is anything but soothing. Poetic, often highly metaphorical lyrics voiced in eerie refrains float through angular, spiraling chord progressions. "Your Ghost", a duet with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, is a masterpiece of haunted love that lingersin the listener's brain like a dream. Such songs as "Sundrops" and "Me And My Charms" are charged with a fearful intensity, revealing the fine line between rage and deep emotionalpain. Part of Hersh's appeal is her ability to convey both despair and beauty. "Velvet Days", a love poem to her child and one of Hersh's loveliest songs, is a shining example of the latter. HIPS AND MAKERS is a fierce, moving, and beautiful collection of songs by a wonderful and often overlooked artist.