If you title an album ‘Me’ then you are making a statement that says that the music herein is you, who you are and who you would like to be. This lady is definitely from her own planet, one that shares our solar system but maybe not the same chunk of space.
It is intense, in that ‘stare you down in the bikers bar’ level of intense. It is also musical and exciting.
Ms Knipp traverses the genres of Americana with abandon, dropping a bit of ‘30’s influenced piano ballad or a Georgia Satellites style Blues rocker or a jaunty little number about ‘Vampire’. Her music starts in one place and transforms – in a heartbeat – to something else, and it works. It is all coherent and 3 dimensional and keeps you listening both to what you are hearing and what you think you might be hearing at any moment.
Vocally, she has a dark contralto, equally suited to ballads and rock, and she sings softer material with a real beauty.
The opener, ‘Mud’ is a noir epic, loaded with edgy changes.
‘I Want To Tell You’ is bittersweet, a poem to a friend, dark and sad, gentle but oh so lonely and incredibly sweet.
One of my favourite tracks, ‘Go’, is an altogether different number. A song about the difference between love and sex. Horns and guitar solo, the full treatment and Knipp wailing like a banshee.
Every track tells a story, illuminates another side of the lady, and every track is intensely listenable. Her sixth album and, I think, her best yet.
