Carrie Clark & The Lonesome Lovers
Album: Between The Bed Sheets And Turpentine
Label: Red Bug
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.carrieclark.com

Carrie's a Seattle-based singer-songwriter with a penchant for recreating old (by which I mean nostalgic, pre-rock) musical styles with her band accompaniments. A constant switching of affinities that can be a touch disorienting, but repeated playthroughs reveal a consistency of vision that transcends the initial sense of occasional bewilderment. So let's not get distracted by the bouncy swing-vibe of the seductive dance-hall-cum-cabaret opening number Bum Bah Dum, which is virtually like nothing else on the album.

Examining Carrie's lyrics, you'll find her stock-in-trade is relationship songs, and these convince, often in a distinctly autobiographical manner (she's been there, in other words). As the disc moves through its procession of moods, taking in some gently mando-and-accordion-rippled tracks like I'm A Lark and the ballad Where Are You?, the disarming honesty of How Could I? and the klezmer-inflected solid-state strut of The Night Before whose blowsy arrangement threatens to go over the top, we encounter the driven, jittery, creepy theatrical twang of The Stranger and (finally) the twinkling tenderness of lullaby Sing Me.

The standard band backings are augmented on a couple of notable occasions (the rather sad portrait Fade Away and the grinding, if plaintive epic Down At My Knees which boasts a veritable wall of sound) by guests (including a clarinettist and a quartet of string players). Some tracks venture confidently into the realm of the altogether heavier-duty guitar-burner: Forgotten Time (kinda Lucinda, I thought), the energy-fuelled (Pretenders-like) protest-rocker What Have We Done?

There are occasions during the course of the album when the production is a touch loud, rather as if striving too hard for effect - but it's still an impressive disc. Oh, and one last point - I can't quite fathom where this record's been languishing for the past couple of years (it bears a 2011 date, yet it came with no accompanying press release) - however, its discovery sure is overdue.

David Kidman