This is her 19th studio release and, like all her albums, it showcases her banjo-playing expertise whilst confirming her versatility and endearing penchant for quirky humour.
As with her previous records, brother Frank and mother jean get in the act too. The latter co-wrote six of the tracks while her sibling plays 12-string guitar and adds backing vocals (and animal sounds!) on several tunes.
‘Mean’ Mary imagines herself transformed into a werewolf on the title tune which also stands as a critique of societal perceptions of womanhood.
A nice atmosphere of quiet menace pervades the opening track Revenge in which she sings ominously “an eye for an eye seems a fair exchange.”
In a lighter vein, the madcap video to Tarzan presents Mary as a “sane red-blooded girl” and a series of “jungle women”.
Mary’s fascination for dark Americana finds expression in the eight-minute, 20-verse murder ballad Murder Creek set in Alabama.
Her mood swings mean that she can be enjoyed as a fun-femme or feared as a femme-fatale.
