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Whether in Nickel Creek or Watkins Family Hour, Sara Watkins has always stood out as an enormous talent. She has the kind of voice you can’t believe is real. It’s breathtakingly beautiful at every point in her range. We’ve watched her grow and evolve as a singer-songwriter over the years, and on her latest solo record Young in All the Wrong Ways, she sounds more confident than ever. A breakup album that will rip your heart out and shred it, this feels like Watkins as her most realized self, raw and uninhibited.
Opening the record is the explosive title track, which alternates smartly between pretty softness and hard rocking intensity. It’s either an intense statement of self-empowerment, as Watkins sings, “I’m going out to see about my own frontier.” Even just the album and song’s title is a fascinating concept – to be young in all the wrong ways is to deal with the ups and downs of youth and inexperience. It can be wonderful, beautiful, eye-opening and thrilling. It can also be vulnerable and filled with frustration, failure and insecurity. Watkins is up to the challenge of examining that, and with this song, she speaks to the pain of outgrowing a relationship.
More than just relationships with others, though, Watkins seems to be especially in tune with her relationship with herself. Young in All the Wrong Ways is so much about growing up and changing as a person. She confronts her needs and desires with the kind of self-assured maturity that only comes with life experience, and through her nearly lifelong career, she’s had plenty. “Move Me” is a call to action of sorts, for an earth-shaking relationship. She’s giving her all, and she expects it in return. And the way she practically screams it out makes you get behind her whole-heartedly, and probably think to yourself, yeah…I want that, too.
Young in All the Wrong Ways is first and foremost a pop rock album, but Watkins rootsy roots are still tucked in there. “The Truth Won’t Set Us Free” is one of the twangier tunes on offer, especially with the subtle accent of fiddle thrown in. And “Tenderhearted” is a sweet, country ballad. There are a quite a few slow songs on this album, but when Watkins take things up, it’s no holds barred. She’s full of emotion and a little rasp, so every note sounds like it’s coming from a deep place, from the light and lovely “Like New Years Day” to the driving anthem “Say So”.
Watkins is a dynamic artist with the proven ability to harmonize as part of a group, but hearing her break out in such a powerful way as on Young in All the Wrong Ways shows her true potential to be a force of a solo artist.
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