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Kelly Buchanan plays tough girl good |
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Written by SHAWN FEAKINS
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Tuesday, 22 March 2005 |
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Remember Liz Phair before she left a trail of people who were musically hip in the '90s feeling betrayed by a painful piece of pop performance art? Ever wonder what would have happened if Tori Amos picked up a guitar and spat whiskey into the audience’s faces instead of singing about faeries? The interesting thing is that even these comparisons don’t entirely describe Kelly Buchanan’s third album “Bastard Daughter.”
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Kelly Buchanan
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 Entertainment
Art
“Bastard Daughter”
(Velvet Ear Records)
Released March 22, 2005
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The songs range from punk to pop to folk to rock. The album starts with a stutter of production feedback twisting back into itself, which sums up the album as a whole. The opening song of “Letter In You Mailbox” is a pop song that could easily be heard on many Top 40 stations. But this image explodes with “Piggyback Girl”, a straight forward punk number (and in case you missed that, someone screams PUNK ROCK! after the song. Okay, that song tries a little too hard.) “Cocaine” is an irresistible bar brawl rock song.
On other albums, this inconsistency would grate. But the songs are held together surprisingly well given the strength of Buchanan’s personality. This is indeed, “Angry Chick” music, singing unabashedly feminist tales of abuse, love, and sex. Her lush voice bends effortlessly from a crooner to a screecher to a sultry ballad to a husky whiskey downing country to a full-throated rock and roll mistress. Hear that? That’s Sleater Kinney. No, that’s Joan Jett. Wait, no that’s PJ Harvey. Hold on, it’s Alannis Morrisette (minus the pop-sap of “Thank You”, thank YOU very much). There’s the lyricism of Ani Di Franco.
There’s a good chance that Miss Buchanan would disagree with some of the comparisons above. In fact, she could very well easily kick my ass for doing so. To be honest, the fact that she could and eagerly would is part of the attraction. Or maybe I’m still pining for a Liz Phair in a self-imposed mindless bubblegum pop exile. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
