Auburn
Album: Nashville
Label: Scarlet
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.reverbnation.com/weareauburn

As the album name may imply there is a more Americana almost country touch to this latest album from Auburn, but that doesn't mean that they are giving up their old time almost cabaret sound, no siree. That sultry shuffle with its reach back towards the between the wars era, is still what predominantly what defines the band.

What I really like is the way they've integrated that country sound, particularly the lap steel into the sound to really bring out a torch element that really gives Liz Lenten a framework to overlay her Patsy Clinesque vocals over on songs like "Hurting" and produce a sound that is as evocative as it is moving. It also forms a scintillating contrast with the following track, "Crazy People" which roams around the preconceptions about what makes crazy.

In someways "Crazy People is the song that defines Auburn because they are a band that doesn't so much push the envelope as use the envelope to ensure you don't see what's coming until you've ripped it open.

There is a sense of drama about the songs, sometimes delivered by the lyric, sometime, as with "Butterfly", delivered by the instrumentation, which rather than feeling like a relaxed flight seems to have a sound of an insect desperate to maintain a grip of life by desperately flitting this way and that.

"Nashville" is an album that challenges expectations, one which doesn't always let you settle. At times it is almost disconcerting, but never to the point of distraction, it's an album that requires that you take the time to give it a proper listen.

Neil King