Hear that noise? That’s me backpedalling. Kasey Cambers has walloped my assertions about sticking to her core strengths.
There isn’t anything resembling old-school country on this release. Instead Chambers is more squarely in the rock domain. And doing quite nicely at it thank you.
Gone also is the usual lap steel from her pa. The sound is more lush, and at times even lounge-y.
The songwriting has matured. It doesn’t have the laughs or the quirkiness of her early work.
The single off this album was also well-chosen . Nothing at All is catchy and appropriately representative of her shift in focus, yet the most typical in terms of vocalisation.
Having listened to the albums in such quick succession it is impressive how far such a regularly pigeonholed artist has progressed across four albums. Tunes like Railroad and the Tim Rogers‘ collaboration I Got You Know are a long way from the content of her debut.
Kasey’s performs one other minor miracle of note here – making Powderfinger’s Bernard Fanning sound almost bearable. It is also hard to conceive of how said coupling didn’t spontaneously generate their own Aria category…
File under: Freakishly fine
One Album a Day 