‘Only Daughter’ is the fourth long player from Brooklyn-born singer songwriter REBECCA PRONSKY, although with this album she has veered away from the jazz and folk aspects of her music to produce an album steeped in country/ country rock. Not that this is a bad thing, in fact exactly the opposite. The songs suit her voice perfectly, and the musical style adds depth to the, sometimes dark, lyrics.
There are ten songs on the album, which was produced by Rebecca’s husband and guitarist Rich Bennett. Nine of the tracks are Rebecca’s originals with one, ‘Glenn Tipton’ (an ode to one of Judas Priest's two lead guitarists?) being a cover of a Mark Kozelek song.
The album opens with ‘Rise Up’, a country-style song that just chugs along like a freight train, using acoustic and electric guitars and with some heavy sounding drums. The lyrics are somewhat a call to arms: - “Blinking, hissing messages appear, a black fly has been buzzing in your ear/ Did you check your pulse this morning at the door? / What was it you used to be living for?/ Rise up in the land of the free, rise up whoever you may be/ Rise up if you dare...We are everywhere.”
Following this is ‘Honesty’, which whilst it still has country overtones, is poppier and bright. A song that touches on the loneliness inside of people, the lyrics really make this track: - “I like what is hidden from me. Am I the only one hungry/ To walk the streets at night, and gaze in lighted windows?/ The city is the place where we come face to face/ With ourselves, our lonely lives. Strangers are not alibis.”
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Other tracks that I found particularly satisfying were ‘Big Demands’, a track with a heavy drum beat and some guitar lines that don’t sound a million miles from The Gun Club’s early work. The lyrics also have some good wordplay: - “Put your head in your hands, listen to my big demands/ Let’s go for a ride, somewhere bigger baby, somewhere higher maybe/ You’ll see my side."
The track ‘Another’ was also one that I thought particularly good, with the guitars sounding like something Chris Isaak would have done. Here the lyrics are a bit more oblique: - “Another brother, another brother has come/ Come to you/ Two homes, two phone numbers, back bones dig through slumbers/ You know you’re not what you used to be."
The album closer, ‘Please Forget Me’ marks a real departure from everything that has gone before. With its plinky-plonk piano and ukulele, this is an oddity, but also quite a good ending to the album. The lyrics touch on a relationship split: - “I’m not fit for loving, always caught in something/ You can’t compete with the thrills I seek. Please forget me.”
‘Only Daughter’ marks a big step forward for Rebecca, and as a result is well worth investing in.
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