Categories : Country + Western, Miscellany, Music Reviews.
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Rating: 3.5/5 Released: June 6, 2006 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
With their new release Firecracker, The Wailin’ Jennys successfully manage to combine the best of their previous release 40 Days, namely angelic harmonies and beautiful instrumentation, with new musical styles to produce another album worthy of praise.
Where 40 Days was strictly a folk album, this sophomore full length release manages to successfully venture down a few new avenues without straying too far from their roots. The opening track ‘The Devil’s Paintbrush Road,’ as well as ‘This Heart of Mine’ both have an upbeat bluegrass feel, while ‘Glory Bound’ and ‘Starlight’ are primarily Celtic in nature. This musical diversity illustrates wonderfully the group’s growth and their willingness to better themselves, rather than play it safe and bask in the light of their previous success. And while these new styles are fresh and original, the folk content is still just as good as before, and in many instances much better.
Despite this, the album is not without a few minor detractions. ‘Swallow,’ which is sung over a simple mandolin and guitar backing is sound musically, but is somewhat awkward lyrically in the chorus. Not long after this is the traditional tune ‘Long Time Traveler.’ Sung a cappella, it has the opposite than desired effect, proving that this trio are at their best with instrumental accompaniment.
With this release the Jennys have managed to preserve the prevalent theme they began 40 Days with, three voices as one. Like 40 Days, Firecracker is enchanting both musically and especially vocally, and although there is still room for improvement they have managed to create a more exciting and enjoyable album than their first.
