“I’ve got ways to make you come back to me” promises Kathleen Edwards on the first single and title track of her second album. Apparently, one of those ways includes making a sophomore album that tops her first.
And so returns the Canadian troubadour with Back To Me, the follow-up to her respected full-length debut, Failer. Simply put, Back To Me is a better listen. Edwards’ has refined her songwriting so her small-town tales are clearer and complete, and her wordplay less clumsy. The music trades some roots for rock but smolders with an engaging warmness that was faint on Failer. The earthy, alt-country atmosphere is still intact, complementing Edwards’ plaintive tone to open a window into her world of woe.
And that woe would be man. For starters, there’s the rolling “In State,” where Edwards’ bad-boy boyfriend is more hooked on crime than he is her, and the only thing that may change him is doing some time. Edwards also has a troubled tendency toward hooking up with ex-boyfriends and dabbling in trysts, as she’s constantly let down by her lovers.
Though she struggles in her relative tolerance for mistreatment, Edwards empowers herself with raw verve in libidinal rockers like “Back To Me,” confidently naming all the ways she can control an ex as she pleases.
Edwards also has difficulty finding a good place to settle down. Location is a recurring theme on Back To Me, as being home is central to Edwards and her identity. Though she claims in the wistful “Old Time Sake” that “nothing in this town could ever change,” she returns to her native Ottawa in “Somewhere Else” to find strip malls where there were once side streets. And on “Copied Keys” she declares, “This is my town and it never will be” in her boyfriend’s hometown.
Similar to Failer, the first several listens of Back To Me reveal a general sameness to all the songs. But on subsequent spins, varied nuances emerge in instrumentation like the rich pedal steel guitar, the masterful musicianship of guitarist Colin Cripps, and the moody mandolin on “Old Time Sake.” There’s a definite cohesion, but the tracks have a tendency to almost bleed too much into each other.
You gotta feel for Kathleen Edwards. She’s a wanderer searching for love in what seems like all the wrong places. Her narratives are redolent of a Canadian country scene not all that unlike a Southern one, where a lone soul drowns their sorrows before closing time at the local pub, secretly hoping and waiting for an old fling to come through the doors before night’s end.
Edwards may seem like damaged goods, but she still holds out hope. In closing track “Good Things,” she comes up from being down on her luck and states her belief that good things (namely true love) come to those who aren’t waiting or looking for them.
We promise not to wait around, Kathleen, but keep the good stuff comin’.
Standout Tracks: “In State,” “Back To Me,” “Old Time Sake”
For more info see kathleenedwards.com
