Maria TaylorLynn Teeter Flower | Saddle Creek  March 12,
2007 5:23:21 PM
|
Singing in harmony with Orenda Fink in the indie-folk duo Azure Ray, Maria Taylor sounded so at home that it seemed a waste when the two pursued solo careers two years ago. So the arrival of Taylor’s 11:11 (Saddle Creek) in 2005 was more than just a pleasant surprise — it marked the welcome arrival of a pleasantly familiar yet alluring songwriting voice shot through with wit and wisdom, beauty and depth, introspective darkness and infectious light. Lynn Teeter Flower — an in-joke tied to a track of the same title that closes the disc with a little girl belting those words into a studio microphone — delivers on the promise of 11:11. There are Feisty electro-acoustic tracks like the slow-driving “Irish Goodbye” with its technofied beat, strummed guitar, and a rap by someone named RIG. And there are skeletal lo-fi tunes, like “Clean Getaway,” with its melancholy mood and wry lines — “I met someone at the bar/He had a great smile and a great heart/It felt just like love/Except no fear of losing and it wasn’t tough” — giving way to the more hopeful “I finally made a clean getaway.” Taylor isn’t afraid to fall back on her old folky ways, with Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst helping out on vocals in the harmony-rich, rootsy “The Ballad of Sean Foley.” But with the piano-driven “Replay” and the organ-laced “Smile and Wave,” she embraces full-bodied production and a bold yet reflective sensibility that takes advantage of her talents as a singer, a songwriter, and a sonic sculptress.
Maria Taylor + Brendan Little + Mean Creek | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street, Cambridge | March 18 | 617.492.BEAR
|
 |
|
- VIDEO: Michael Bronski assesses the gay-porn career of O'Reilly Factor fave Matt Sanchez
- Oral is the new second base, the “mostly” girls keep on kissing girls, and the Bro Job has arrived (but is still not ready for its close-up)
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- Solving the press’s credit problem
- Black vote + uncommon charisma = quantifiable advantage
- Whither the Boston Irish?
- How one little post-war doughnut shop became synonymous with Boston’s identity
- In The Edge of Disaster, a security expert warns that the US is not prepared for future disasters
- Last year’s New Times–Village Voice media merger pitted two kinds of journalism against each other. Guess who won?
- Who’s looking at you, kid?
- Veteran New York editor Lance Gould to helm the weekly
- The abiding lessons of civil-rights-movement-era journalism
|
-
Rapper Tim Fite gives it away
-
Spring brings new albums from Nine Inch Nails, Arctic Monkeys, Timbaland, and more
-
Piebald aren’t just from Boston anymore
-
Bang Camaro unveil their debut CD
-
Lucinda Williams goes West
-
A Date with John Waters | New Line
-
Bloc Party rise to the occasion, plus Lily Allen on SNL
-
The singles club
-
Better late than never, right?
|
- All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone | Temporary Residence
- The Point | Magnatude
- The Deep Blue | Little Sister UK
- CÊ | Nonesuch
- The Autumn Defense | Broadmoor
- Morricone in the Brain: Blowing Your Mind | Bella Casa
- We All Belong | Park the Van
- The Calling | Zoë/Rounder
- Moonswept | Savoy Jazz
|
|
|
|