4.5/5
Blackbirds
Artist: Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, has made her living penning songs for singers with half her talent and twice her fame. One song you may know of hers is “Independence Day,” made famous by Martina McBride. It is highly likely that she will write another hit song this year and will receive only a lick of credit. Others may record her songs this year, but mark my word when I say no one will release a better country album than this in 2015. Quite a bold statement, I know; but Blackbirds is a record made of 100%, unadulterated country.
Blackbirds is a morose album. Common themes include death, abuse, depression, and pain for pains sake. Based on these songs, Peters truly means in when she sings “the cure for the pain is the pain” in the album-highlight “The Cure for the Pain.” And so she goes singing her songs about the most pained of people. Another one of the album’s best tracks, “When All You Got Is a Hammer,” reflects on the military’s ill-treatment of soldiers returning home from a war that has shocked them into a PTSD shell.
You know your record is especially dark when the sunniest track is about death. There is reason, though, why “Jubilee” is by far the album’s greatest song. It’s the best kind of funeral song. Rather than wallowing in sorrow, Peters sings of liberation from this wretched life. In the tradition of an aged Gospel hymn, she celebrates: “I sing holy holy, from this prison where I lie.”
In a particularly artful move usually pulled off by concept rap albums, Peters closes the set with a reprise of the opening song and title track. This trick usually comes off as a desperate attempt to fill up album space, hoping we won’t realize we have listened to the same song twice. Here, though, Peters utilizes the stylistic decision with telling efficiency. The first time we hear “Blackbirds,” it is pulsating with an electric guitar groove that signals the beginning of a great album. Ten songs later, we arrive back full circle with the same song dressed in a simpler, quieter arrangement. The tune of “liberation!” becomes the tune of “liberation?” It’s a gutsy move that will leave the listener speechless and wanting more.
Blackbirds
Artist: Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, has made her living penning songs for singers with half her talent and twice her fame. One song you may know of hers is “Independence Day,” made famous by Martina McBride. It is highly likely that she will write another hit song this year and will receive only a lick of credit. Others may record her songs this year, but mark my word when I say no one will release a better country album than this in 2015. Quite a bold statement, I know; but Blackbirds is a record made of 100%, unadulterated country.
Blackbirds is a morose album. Common themes include death, abuse, depression, and pain for pains sake. Based on these songs, Peters truly means in when she sings “the cure for the pain is the pain” in the album-highlight “The Cure for the Pain.” And so she goes singing her songs about the most pained of people. Another one of the album’s best tracks, “When All You Got Is a Hammer,” reflects on the military’s ill-treatment of soldiers returning home from a war that has shocked them into a PTSD shell.
You know your record is especially dark when the sunniest track is about death. There is reason, though, why “Jubilee” is by far the album’s greatest song. It’s the best kind of funeral song. Rather than wallowing in sorrow, Peters sings of liberation from this wretched life. In the tradition of an aged Gospel hymn, she celebrates: “I sing holy holy, from this prison where I lie.”
In a particularly artful move usually pulled off by concept rap albums, Peters closes the set with a reprise of the opening song and title track. This trick usually comes off as a desperate attempt to fill up album space, hoping we won’t realize we have listened to the same song twice. Here, though, Peters utilizes the stylistic decision with telling efficiency. The first time we hear “Blackbirds,” it is pulsating with an electric guitar groove that signals the beginning of a great album. Ten songs later, we arrive back full circle with the same song dressed in a simpler, quieter arrangement. The tune of “liberation!” becomes the tune of “liberation?” It’s a gutsy move that will leave the listener speechless and wanting more.