I just finished watching my Boston Bruins lose Game six, during which I experienced plenty of both of the emotions expressed in the title of this next record. The less said about the outcome, the better.
Disc 1733 is…Love & Rage
Artist: Carsie Blanton
Year of Release: 2021
What’s up with the Cover? It was 2021 so whatever you were doing out on the sidewalk – even if it was just lying down - hopefully you were wearing a mask like these kids here.
What they aren’t doing is keeping a minimum distance of six feet, but given where that dude’s arm is nestled, I’m going to guess these two were already in each other’s bubble.
Remember when all those terms like “minimum distance” and “bubble” meant something? Yeesh. How much do I not miss the pandemic.
How I Came To Know It: Originally my friend Brennan introduced me to Carsie Blanton. This record was well into my love affair with her music, and I’ve been wanting to buy it since it came out. However, Blanton tends to release very few (if any) CD copies and if you miss it, you’re usually outta luck. That’s what happened here. I hung on for a while but late last year I finally decided the CD wasn’t likely to happen and downloaded a few of her recent records, including this one.
How It Stacks Up: I have seven Carsie Blanton albums but one of them (not this one) is an album of stripped down remakes, and so doesn’t count for our purposes. That leaves us with six Carsie Blanton albums, with “Love & Rage” coming in at #4.
Rating: 4 stars
Given how hard I’ve fallen for Carsie Blanton over the last few years I was surprised to discover this is my first review of her work. Since that’s the case, a quick introduction to just who she is feels in order. Blanton is a pop folk singer with a natural talent for writing a melody and clever, edgy lyrics that’ll make you smile and think. I don’t know about you, but I love that combination of smilin’ and thinkin’ and if you do too, then you’ll probably enjoy a Carsie Blanton record.
This was Blanton’s pandemic album, when we were all a little stressed out and prone to fits of love and rage. Blanton’s songwriting makes you feel like she’d be a good person to weather a lockdown with, though. She always feels chill and easygoing, even when she is spewing a bit of nasty.
For a dose of love, Blanton serves up “Be Good”, a song referencing two of histories greatest lovers of the human race – Jesus and MLK. She refers to them both as “dangerous” but it is the good kind of dangerous, the kind willing to put themselves at risk to help out others. Pretty cool. The philosophy she sums up in the chorus:
“Be good to the
people you love
And love everybody alive”
Nice. Unsurprisingly, the song has a church choir swing to it. Blanton is a natural at sitting down in the pocket and letting the song sway her, and “Be Good” is a natural finger snapper of a tune. Also, it makes you feel good about being human.
She follows it up with the much more personal “All My Love” one of many crooners where she expresses devotion for someone that is clearly more than “everybody” in terms of importance.
When she turns to rage, she does it with equal commitment. “Shit List” is a nasty song about every old out of touch asshole you may have ever met. Blanton loves deeply, but as she demonstrates on “Shit List” if you cross her lines of decency, she’ll call you on it.
Blanton’s vocals are sugary and playful, with more than a bit of smoke. At the same time she sounds personable and approachable. Half lounge singer, half late-night at a party girl, pulling out a guitar and entertaining whoever’s still there come 2 a.m. She doesn’t sing with huge power, instead relying on great tone and an innate sense of timing to serve the narrative of each song.
The album is more stripped down than some of her other work, which was a common feature of the pandemic years where it was a pain to safely bring a bunch of musicians into a studio and have them breathe on each other for 16 hours. It doesn’t suffer from this; if anything it makes it better.
At only 34 minutes the songs are short, sharp and get to the point fast. Because of the shortness of the record I listened to it a good five or six times this week. Despite all that familiarity, I never got tired of it. There are no bad songs, and the best ones are downright inspiring.
Best tracks: Party at the End of the World Be Good, All My Love, Shit List, Ain’t No Sin
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