JOLIE HOLLAND
Escondida (Anti)
Reviewed by Sherman Wick

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Jolie Holland creates music that has more in common with the '20s than contemporary music on Escondida. And that's a good thing - since her music has an elemental and intimate quality and is eclectic enough that it lacks the stigma of old-time purism. Holland's music puts the emphasis on idiosyncratic jazz singing with spare accompaniments.

Holland's vocals and lyrics are central throughout the entire record. The singer's lyrics update and reinvent early 20th century jazz, folk and country songs. "Old Fashioned Morphine" is an example: the folk standard "Give Me that Old Time Religion" is reinterpreted with morphine in its place as she yearns for the good old days when we could count on illicit drugs. She certainly hearkens back to an odd halcyon day on the track. "Goodbye California" is an acoustic guitar driven country song about leaving California and death. If that track is oddly fun in a slightly apocalyptic way, then "Do You?" is one of the most subtly caustic songs that I have heard in a long time. It begins as one of the umpteen unrequited love songs, but climaxes with the most lacerating ending in years for this too frequently cliched kind of song, "You motherfucker, I wanted you." The sublime context of the song makes the word "motherfucker" stunningly powerful. "Sascha" and "Black Stars" are mellow acoustic guitar accompanied numbers, which showcases the singer's vocals, which get inside the melody and elongate and stretch it in the jazz singing tradition. This is a great record: Holland deftly writes, sings and arranges songs.

© 2005 - Sherman Wick