Drops: Kathleen Edwards' 'Voyageur'
The album titled "Voyageur" by Kathleen Edwards. Credit: Handout/
Kathleen Edwards isn't mellowing. She's just getting craftier.
Her fourth album "Voyageur" (Zoe/Rounder) may not have any of the memorably cranky rockers from her earlier work -- "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory" or "One More Song the Radio Won't Like" -- but they're not really needed here.
Instead, Edwards is building something different. Yes, there is plenty of buzz about why -- Grammy-nominated Bon Iver front man Justin Vernon, who also happens to be Edwards' boyfriend, has signed on as co-producer on the album. But the more interesting question is how she does it.
On "Change the Sheets," Edwards' gorgeous vocals climb over the Bon Iver-like swoosh of atmospheric sound and ride the jangly guitar rather than settle in the hush. On "Sidecar," the synthesized bloops and pretty stacked vocals only add to the feeling of abandon she's trying to capture.
Edwards does seem to internalize some of Vernon's distinctive view of beauty, especially in the lush rocker "Going to Hell" and the hauntingly spare "A Soft Place to Land," though her poignant vocals are less processed than most Bon Iver deliveries.
And in case there were any worries Edwards had gotten too serious, she kicks the album off with "Empty Threat," where the Canadian singer-songwriter declares, "I'm movin' to America -- that's an empty threat."
Guess we can't call "Voyageur" Americana now, can we? That's OK -- great leap forward will do.
"Voyageur"
GRADE A-
BOTTOM LINE Forging her own middle ground between folk and indie rock
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