Amy Speace
(Wildflower Records)
Given her all-star support - erstwhile producer James Mastro, also the man behind the Bongos and Health and Happiness Club, esteemed pop pundit Mitch Easter, Judy Collins, who signed the young artist to her Wildflower label and Ian Hunter, who makes a rare guest appearance here as backing vocalist -- it wouldn't have been surprising if Amy Speace were content to relegate the heavy lifting to her colleagues and merely coast on their credentials. Fortunately, Speace opts not to take a backseat and chooses instead to step up to the spotlight and bare her soul in full confession. This, the third album of her solo sojourn, finds her emotionally tattered following the break-up her decade-long marriage and offering up a song cycle that explores the torment and uncertainty that love often wreaks on the psyche.
Notably then, Speace never falters from the challenge, and while songs such as "Storm Warning" ("This is gonna hurt"), "This Love" ("Sometimes love is not enough/Sometimes time is all you need") and "Haven't Learned A Thing" ("I have failed, I have fallen, cried til I was bawling...") purvey the pain caused when bonds are shattered and relationships go wrong, she also sounds resolute and resilient even in these bleakest of circumstances. "Dog Days" and "Something More Than Rain" show her determined to rise above adversity and peer cautiously towards hopeful days ahead. And while the album is cast mostly in darker hues, on songs like "Better" and "Would I Lie" she quickens the pace and comes across as a feisty insurgent who could keep company with Lucinda Williams or Chrissie Hynde as they curse those who betrayed them and laid their love to waste. "If I'm good enough for you, am I good enough for me?," she retorts on the strident "Dirty Little Secret," a veritable declaration of assertion and independence that sets the tone for the album as a whole. The answer's clear - she's not only good enough, but strong enough to prove it as well.
Standout tracks: "Dog Days," "I Met My Love," "Dirty Little Secret" LEE ZIMMERMAN
