Last night on the walk home from
the pub my compatriots and I all agreed to go boldly into London Drugs and buy
a CD with little forethought. Everyone else welched, but I am now the proud
owner of Meatloaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” for the low price of $5. Not sure if I
won or lost. I guess I’ll decide when I review it.
A definite win was getting four
Harpeth Rising albums direct from the band, who kindly shipped it to me from their
home base in Indiana. Harpeth Rising is one of the finer contemporary folk acts
out there – check them out here.
Now, with the Dolphins game safely
on pause I offer you up a little country…
Disc 946 is….State of the Heart
Artist: Mary
Chapin Carpenter
Year of Release: 1989
What’s up with the Cover? Mary Chapin Carpenter confronts
a version of herself from an alternate universe. In that universe, Carpenter is
a tough-as-nails police detective with a penchant for bad boys and the blues.
No,
wait…sorry, I was temporarily thrown off by Carpenter’s unexpected eighties
rocker girl haircut. This is just her looking in a mirror.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve reviewed three Mary Chapin
Carpenter albums already and each time can’t remember how I got to know her.
Sure my buddy Norm liked her, but that wasn’t the birth of it all; I already
had one album when he mentioned her.
“State
of the Heart” was the first record of hers I hever got, and finally jogged my memory. Back in university I was chasing after
this girl (as one does at that age). She was friends with my buddy girlfriend at
the time, and was a Ph.D. student in something or other (I can’t remember what).
I was smitten with her and she was smitten with Mary Chapin Carpenter
(particularly the early ‘folk’ years – she was a hipster before her time). I
decided to check out Mary Chapin Carpenter so we’d have something in common
(being a lowly undergraduate, I was having a hard time impressing her with my
usual mix of manic banter and quotes from Tennyson).
So I got
into about Mary Chapin Carpenter and tried to talk to her about that – which is
when I learned it wasn’t the subject matter that was at issue, but rather the
source. Turns out she was more interested in talking with another guy in our
circle who was taller, better looking and - against all odds - had better hair.
Ah well, at least Mary Chapin Carpenter worked out.
How It Stacks Up: I’ve gone on a bit of a Mary Chapin Carpenter
binge in the past year and now have eight of her albums (last time I reviewed
one I only had 5). Of the eight I now have, “State of the Heart” is pretty
awesome. I’ll put it second.
Ratings: 4 stars
Mary
Chapin Carpenter has always straddled the worlds of folk, rock and country and “State
of the Heart” is a fine example of her skill at walking in all worlds and
mastering each.
Sadly,
the Soulless Record Execs convinced her (or she decided) to start the record
with the most Nashville country of the lot with “How Do” a playful and flirty song which is good, but not what makes
Carpenter great.
Fortunately
the rest of this record is exactly what makes Carpenter great; strong
songwriting, sparse production (particularly for 1989), and a low sweet tone
that draws you into the stories of ordinary people making their way in the
world.
The
album’s second track, “Something of a
Dreamer” has all of that and more, a poignant song about a woman picking
men that are no good for her because, well, she dreams it could be better. The guitar
work on this song is relaxed and easy, and the flourishes of violin are
tasteful and restrained. Carpenter’s vocals climb high up into her range and
never lose their power.
It is
this folksy side of Carpenter that has always appealed to me first, with songs that
have strong and evocative lyrics that drew me in when I was young and
impressionable and still draw me in now. On “This Shirt” Carpenter shares vignettes of her life through the recurring
presence of a favourite shirt. I’ve heard these lines:
“This shirt was the place your
cat
Decided to give birth to five
And we stayed up all night
watching
And we cried when the last one
died.”
Countless
times, but they still had me welling up thinking of all the cats I’ve said
goodbye to over the years.
And
while these folks songs hit me the hardest, the up tempo country side of the record
is also great “How Do” is a lesser
track, and even it is still OK. Better still is “Too Tired” a song about acquiescing to an ill-advised booty call.
The song has that fifties rock swing that is all too common in mainstream
country. Despite this, Carpenter makes it work, with clever lyrics and a melody
that takes the tired Nashville formula and twists it just enough to make it
interesting again.
“Slow Country Dance” is a waltz about an
aging beauty still trying to find love, lost in the moment of the dance, and “Quittin’ Time” a pop song which somehow
makes the regret of a collapsing love soar with conviction. Genres are an
afterthought, as Carpenter masters each with ease.
The
songwriting on “State of the Heart” is some of the best you will ever find, and
the range Carpenter shows (both vocally and stylistically) is impressive. This
is a record I’ve heard a hundred times and every time I play it I enjoy it as
much as the first time.
Best
tracks: Something
of a Dreamer, This Shirt, Quittin’ Time, Down in Mary’s Land, Too Tired, Slow
Country Dance
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