Jolie Holland: the living and the dead (Anti)

 |   |  1 min read

Jolie Holland: Sweet Loving Man
Jolie Holland: the living and the dead (Anti)

There are no liner notes on the advance copy of this album I received some weeks back, but it would be interesting to speculate which of these songs from this San Francisco-based singer-songwriter were penned while on a writing retreat in New Zealand: the  throwaway Enjoy Yourself ("it's later than you think") at the end perhaps where she giggles away?

While there is still the charming yet dark alt.folk feel here (and scraping fiddles and so forth) here the hugely talented Holland also moves towards a kind of indie.pop approach with help from M Ward, guitarist to the stars (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) Marc Ribot and producer Shahzad Ismaily (Bonnie Prince Billy).

There are strange sonic effects which make this one slightly unnerving in places and keep your attention, but there is also an elemental simplity to much of the material: she picks up the old Love Henry which Dylan once favoured; the poppy opener Mexico City - which musically alludes to but doesn't quote from Hispanic music - sounds like it has been around forever (in a good way) and the moving Corrido por Buddy is a sad, spare tale of ghost-faced junkie unrecognisable to his former friends.

Holland has such an idiosyncratic way of phrasing and pronouncing words that everything here is memorable and if in places this lacks just a little of the spark that has been her hallmark there is enough of her rootsy style (albeit slightly rocked up) that means old fans can happily come here.

And Your Big Hands is an unpolished diamond deftly coloured by Stones-styled riffery. 

 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

The Eastern: Arrows (Social End Product/Rhythmethod)

The Eastern: Arrows (Social End Product/Rhythmethod)

The Eastern out of Christchurch are new to me although for the past few months their name has been mentioned a lot, always along the lines of, "Oh, you gotta hear the Eastern." Now I... > Read more

Trip to the Moon: The Invisible Line (Jazzscore)

Trip to the Moon: The Invisible Line (Jazzscore)

Trip to the Moon is another installment (the fifth?) of the long-running if intermittent project of Auckland multi-instrumentalists/producers Tom Ludvigson and Trevor Reekie, and various... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GRAHAM JOHN CLAVERHOUSE REID (b. Edinburgh 1951 - ): In search of my name in Scotland

GRAHAM JOHN CLAVERHOUSE REID (b. Edinburgh 1951 - ): In search of my name in Scotland

When I was in primary school, at least once every year, I’d be teased about my name. Not the unexceptional one on this article, but my full name which some sneaky kid would discover by... > Read more

EPs by Yasmin Brown

EPs by Yasmin Brown

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column by the informed and opinionated Yasmin Brown. She will scoop up some of those many EP releases, in... > Read more