Disc 378 is...Shooting Straight in the Dark
Artist: Mary Chapin Carpenter
Year of Release: 1990
What’s Up With The Cover?: An out of focus head shot. Why, MCC, why do that? Anyway, I'm not a fan of this cover, which looks like so many folksy women singers of this time, right down to the script-like font.
How I Came To Know It: I've known Mary Chapin Carpenter for a long time, but this particular album was a favourite in the day of my friend Norm. I was into 1992's "Come On Come On" but he really liked "Shooting Straight in the Dark." Although I considered buying it for many years, I only did so a couple years ago.
How It Stacks Up: I have five Mary Chapin Carpenter albums, and I like them all in their own way. This isn't the best though, and I'll put it 4th out of 5, just ahead of "Stones In the Road."
Rating: I struggled with this one, waffling between 2 and 3 stars but going back and checking my last few reviews in each category (hint: you can do that in the sidebar) I'm going to go with 3.
"Shooting Straight in the Dark" is a sweet album, in the best possible sense something can be sweet. Not saccharine. Not 'dear' or 'precious,' but sweet - like a tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer day; welcome, and comforting. Hardly overwhelming, but that's not what you want in a glass of lemonade.
It starts with her voice, which is smooth and full, with lots of power in the lower register. I have no doubt she could belt it out with the vacant banshees of American Idol , but Mary Chapin Carpenter knows better. She reins it in, and let good phrasing and honest delivery slip into the cracks between the notes.
She's also sweet in her arrangements. "Shooting Straight in the Dark" is her third album, and fits nicely in the middle of the five I own. It is a little bit more contemporary sounding, as she moves toward the sound that would make "Come On Come On" such a huge record, but there are plenty of her more early country sounding songs. The transition of sounds doesn't always work, but it works enough to deliver a good record.
Fittingly, I was attracted to "Middle Ground" which has a little bit of both sounds in one. It is a song about starting over at the age of 33 (which is about how old she was when she made this record). Listening to this song reminded me of the similarly themed Aimee Mann's "31 Today" and more generally of that momentary panic you experience when you hit your early thirties and start to wonder if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. Been there, done that. If you're there now don't worry; it'll sort itself out.
I also enjoyed the southern guitar picking and fiddle on "Halley Came To Jackson" which reminded me of Michelle Shocked's great record, "Arkansas Traveller." Carpenter sings of the 1910 and 1986 visits of Halley's Comet, first as a father with his infant daughter, and then the same daughter grown old and watching for the second time, but experiencing it for the first. It is both playful and nostalgic at the same time, a warm hug across 75 years.
Sweet can be sad too, and this record has its share of sad and broken relationships, including "What You Didn't Say" and the record's best song, "When She's Gone," a two part tale of a woman leaving, and then a man looking back after she's gone. The song's final lines show you don't need a lot of fancy language to convey a lot of heartache:
"She didn't beg and you didn't plead
She knew exactly when to leave
The way she knew as you kissed her
When she's gone you won't miss her."
For all this well-deserved praise, this record's quality is a bit uneven. This is particularly true when Carpenter picks up the tempo and goes for a more rockabilly feel, like on "Right Now" which is supposed to be a booty-call song, but falls flat. I found it kind of embarassing, like when the shy girl pretends to be otherwise to get the popular boy's attention. Booty call music is more the realm of Lucinda Williams; Mary Chapin Carpenter is just too...well, you know.
The first two songs ("Going Out Tonight", "Right Now") are the weakest on the album, which is not only weird, but sets a bad tone for the record. She recovers nicely through the middle tracks, but it felt like she was trying to be commercial at the front end, and it gets in the way of her brilliance.
Overall, "Shooting Straight in the Dark" is a good record, and an enjoyable listen, but it feels a little less grounded than the record before it (1989's "State of the Heart") and not fully matured into the classic that followed it (1992's "Come On Come On").
That said, as Carpenter points out on "The More Things Change":
"I'm the same sweet girl you couldn't get enough of
Way back when you pledged your love."
So true, and for all my minor quibbles, I enjoyed this tall glass of lemonade.
Best tracks: When She's Gone, Middle Ground, Can't Take Love For Granted, Halley Came To Jackson
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