Over the past few years, the female singer ranks have been piqued by the odd lady who harks back to a more simple, traditional version of one woman and her heartbreak. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, for example. Her solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat, told tales of old-fashioned adultery and a more humble way of life. Kimya Dawson, veteran of this genre, was recently exposed to a whole new audience thanks to the success of her cutesy home-grown ditties on the soundtrack to indie-flick smash Juno. And She and Him use Zooey Deschanel’s wholesome country twang to brilliant effect in anthems of heartbreak and bar brawls.
And so the latest recruit to the female-scorned resurgence is Caitlin Rose, although she owes more to artists like Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams than her contemporaries. Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee (where else?), she’s got some heavy musical heritage behind her. Her Dead Flowers EP is a collection of gusty, tongue-in-cheek (the lyrics to ‘Shotgun Wedding’ will provoke at least a chuckle), tambourine jangling banjo strumming ditties.
‘Gorilla’ is undoubtedly the high point – give a girl a tambourine and nothing else and she’ll write you an absolute toe-tapper. It’s only a minute and a half long, but her quick-witted words and the jingle jangle will hang around for a lot longer.
In a contrast to the brilliantly vulgar lyrics of ‘Docket’, and the classic blues-y drinking tale in the whisky-soaked ‘Answer In One of These Bottles’, the only real low point is her cover of Patsy Cline’s ‘Three Cigarettes (in an ashtray)’. It’s bordering on a little too sickly, lacking the bounce and charm of the rest of the EP, but does reiterate this 20 year-old has certainly got a decent set of lungs on her.
Later there’s a far better suited cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Dead Flowers’. With slide and acoustic guitar and warm backing vocals, it’s got just the right amount of poignancy and hope, as well as Caitlin’s wonderfully nostalgic voice soaring to the rafters.
At seven tracks this is almost twice the length of your average EP – one more track and she could’ve called it an album. This, combined with the cover versions, means there’s a lack of direction and perhaps a missed opportunity for Caitlin to really stamp out her identity on this EP. However, her own tracks and unmistakable voice do enough to set her apart, and I suspect in a few months we’ll be in no doubt as to who she is.
(by Catriona Boyle, www.thelineofbestfit.com, 18. Feb, 2010)
There's a good chance that you haven't heard of Caitlin Rose yet but worry not, neither had we until a few weeks ago.
The hugely up and coming songstress has only just released her début E.P a few months back in the US but now, that very E.P is arriving on these shores, ready for the U.K public to digest and either spit out disapprovingly or swallow wholesomely. What we're here to tell you is that it'll most likely be the latter of those two analogies.
It's simple but deliberately so, easy on the ears but sung directly from the heart. It's almost openly amateur but in a completely complimentary manner, transcending the need to 'impress' with spry, open lyricism and one hell of a set of vocal chords. There's no digging for another meaning or turning the volume up to maximum just to hear that distant twinkling cymbal you missed on the first one-hundred listens, it's just elegantly rough Southern country with an uncomplicated, youthful twist.
It sits at around twenty-minutes in total and with seven songs taking up the full duration. Two of those seven stand as covers chosen by Rose herself; one of the Rolling Stones' 'Dead Flowers' (which managed to impact the woman so much that she named the entire EP after it) and the other being Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray, an early hit for the 1950's Country legend Patsy Cline. The Cline attempt is an enjoyably docile number that brings nothing new to the EP (apart from reinforcing the notion that Rose can sing her lungs out if she wants) but it's her heartfelt Stones cover and album closer that provides the most poignancy. It's pure Country, in every sense of the world - warbling vocals, loose strums, pitched string inflections etc. - and sounds just as much hers as it did the Stones' when it was originally released all those years ago.
She's got as much sass in her vocals as she has tenderness and it resounds throughout, often switching between the two on a whim. The gentle charm of Answer In One Of These Bottles, the confident playfulness of Docket - "I've got a sweet bike, it gets me real far, it doesn't break down like your sweet car" - and the excruciatingly short but equally as lively tambourine-based Gorilla Man. All of them possess nothing ultimately ground-breaking but each one holds its own allure when spouted from the lovely ladies larynx.
What you have here is a brief, undemanding introduction to a wonderfully talented musician who sings from the heart and who boldly leaves complexities at the door. You aren't going to be blown away by anything on the E.P but we guarantee you'll be left wanting more once it ends.
(by Brad Kelly, strangeglue.com, 25th January 2010)