Eddi Reader
(Rough Trade)
Eddi Reader, the Scottish singer who is an established and well-regarded folk-pop presence in Britain but little known in the U.S., has a voice like sunshine. It's pure, bright, warming and filled with an optimistic clarity that banishes any reluctant shadows in its path. It perhaps best recalls the smoothly reassuring female singers of the pre-rock era, such as Doris Day or Patti Page, but with strains of British folk-rock rather than Big Band-era jazziness.
On Love Is the Way, her ninth solo album since 1992 (after being in hit-making band the Fairground Attraction), Reader surrounds that glowing voice with tastefully acoustic arrangements on songs that, for the most part, affirm being alive in a world where love is possible. This album came together quickly, recorded in Glasgow with her regular collaborators Boo Hewerdine and John Douglas among others, while she was working on a greatest-hits collection.
The problem with Reader's approach here, and it feels funny to say there is a problem with such positivism, is that rock and post-rock ears need to hear a little edge, a little darkness, a little melancholy and angst, to avoid being lulled into listlessness. Otherwise, beauty becomes mere prettiness. Reader has trouble with that - her voice lacks the mournful qualities of a Sandy Denny, for instance. A Brian Wilson song written for his ex-wife Marilyn's group American Spring, "Sweet Mountain of Love," moves from a minor-key verse with lyrics expressing insecurity to a major-key uplift and then back. Reader handles the uplift great, like doo-wop, but she can't get a handle on the song's moodier aspects. And sometimes, her interpretations seem superficial and cocktail-loungish, as on an old Doris Day song, "It's Magic." But when Reader works with songwriters sensitive to her strengths, especially Hewerdine and Douglas, the results have the happy spirit-lifting quality of late-1960s sunshine pop, crossed with the literate dimensions of British folk.
The gifted Hewerdine, who sometimes records on his own, contributes (with Reader as co-writer) the catchiest song here, "Over It Now," as well as two appealing "nature" songs - "Dragonflies" and the music hall-ish "Dandelion." Douglas, who an Internet site identifies as Reader's "life partner" and who was in Trash Can Sinatras, writes for her like a soul-mate. "New York City" is a sweetly arranged showcase for her voice's sensitivity, and she makes it a tender ode. And "Roses," with a softly pronounced electric-rock underpinning that even allows for a mellotron solo, sways and swings like pepped-up bossa nova. The chorus, where one of her male accompanists joins in on the vocals, bounces with pure joy. This is Reader at her best and it leaves you pulling for her to always find the best material possible.
Standout Tracks: "Over It Now," "Roses" STEVEN ROSEN
