Maria Taylor - Lynn Teeter Flower (Saddle Creek)
4/5
By: Kevin Molloy
With a seemingly out-of-nowhere runaway success under her belt in the form of '11:11', Maria Taylor took her time in coming back with 'Lynn Teeter Flower'. It's always a dangerous move... expectation for a long-awaited follow-up often exceeds the result. Just take Polly Paulusma's recent seconds as a disastrous example of where everything can go wrong by trying to perfect the career-deciding number two.
Luckily Taylor has restrained herself a little better, and has stuck to doing what she does best: writing songs. The production value is high: Brother and Sister Taylor pack out the album's instrumentation, but her previous success with '11:11' hasn't made this a session album, much to our relief. And whilst Conor Oberst's co-write and harmonies on 'The Ballad of Sean Foley' would be enough to sell this album to many a Bright Eyes fan, the fact remains un-vaunted. Those vocals themselves are strangely understated: none of Oberst's trademark angsty breaks, just subtle reinforcement of the melody and lyrics.
The whole album is similarly poised: both its strength and its weakness. There's not a weak track in sight (except for the odd, scuffly, one-minute outro 'Lynn Teeter Flower', we'll give her the benefit of the doubt on that one: maybe it's an in-joke, but it's just mildly creepy and a-melodic to us). But when she reaches for the passion of rock it all can feel a little clinical. There's no number 11 on Maria Taylor's guitar amps, only in her album names. It's frustrating, because you can feel the music trying to rise to a crescendo, the guitars squealing with feedback, but the whole affair is coming to you down a long length of guttering packed with bubble wrap. It's only ever the voice at the fore, sometimes to the detriment of the song.
But that's our only complaint... most of the time we're quite happy to have those whimsical, world-wise breathings in our ears, leaving the instruments somewhere far behind as the voice becomes almost a capella. That's where the next album should go: it would be fascinating to get the studio tapes of this LP, and to drop everything on the desk except the vocals and harmonies. That would be truly stripping back the layers. As it is, 'Lynn Teeter Flower' is a capable offering: precisely choreographed songwriting and crafted melodies and harmonies, but ultimately lacking just a little in soul.
Stream three tracks from 'Lynn Teeter Flower' HERE.
Artists in this article: Maria Taylor
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