Kim Richey is a Grammy-nominated artist who has produced a series of consistently accomplished and well-crafted New Country albums.
If that statement all sounds complimentary to you then you’ll probably love her 10th studio album.
The other edge to the sword is that these kinds of critically lauded album have a tendency to be worthy but dull. Such is the case here.
Ohio-born Richey is from Mary Chapin Carpenter school of poignant nostalgia wherein soft dreams have a nasty habit of hitting a hard wall of reality. She says : “Nothing in life is all happy or all sad. You don't want to hear a happy song. You want to know that somebody knows how you feel.”
Relatability is her watchword; “One step forward and two steps back. I know how you’re feeling when you’re feeling like that” she sings empathically in A Way Around.
The collection of ten originals is slickly produced by Doug Lancio and was recorded at Skinny Elephant studio in Nashville. The arrangements are tasteful, the melodies are rich, the vocals are warm and engaging. The focus on perfection made me yearn for something to soil the shimmering, shiny surface.
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Faced with a conflict of interests and emotional impasse in The World Is Flat Richey sings with relentless reasonableness “The best we can do is try to be civil.”
In the piano-driven Joy Rider she lusts over “angel on a motor bike” who “knows how the make an engine sing.” The song should be raunchier but it is so sexed-down that it would have no trouble making the Radio 2 playlist.
Richey does gloss over life’s darker moments but somehow manages to make the darkness sound glossy
Kim Richey’s website
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