Freakwater - Thinking Of You

by Geraint Jones

published: 19 / 9 / 2005

Label: Thrill Jockey
Format: CD

Fine first album in six years from the ever versatile Freakwater, which blends together country music, folk, bluegrass and Americana

Review

Six years on from their last album, 1999’s ‘End Time’, Freakwater return with probably their most fully realised and accessible album to date. Opening with the resonating thrum of piano strings on ‘Right Brothers’, the twin vocals of Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean find their niche immediately, alternating and interweaving to greater effect than they have ever done previously. Irwin’s voice won’t work for everyone, her borderline caterwauling could become perilously overbearing at times, but she’s fine-tuned it over the years and with Janet Beveridge Bean’s sweeter tones, albeit taking more of a back seat to Irwin’s more strident phrasing, in unison the pair blend very effectively. Played with gusto and no little sense of humour, amidst the more usual gothic and old-time flavours we have come to expect from them, there’s as much here that won’t have been anticipated. Produced by Califone front-man Tim Rutili, who also guests along with the rest of the band at various junctures, collectively they make ‘Thinking Of You’ a triumphant success. No more emphatic of the unexpected is ‘So Strange’, a rollicking honky-tonk, organ-drenched 60's flavoured, almost kitsch pop hybrid which is terrific fun. It’s not long before the band return to more familiar territory though with the exceptional slow-time and sombre waltz that is ‘Cathy Ann’, it’s old-time fiddle introduction punctuated by mellifluous pedal steel interludes definitely making this one to remember. The quality, diversity and dammit we’re having a good time why don’t you join us attitude is maintained throughout before culminating in the deceptively infectious ‘Hi Ho Silver’. For anyone with even a passing interest in the roots of country music, folk and bluegrass, let alone contemporary Americana/Alt country, I can’t recommend ‘Thinking Of You’ highly enough. For everyone else why not begin getting acquainted here with what’s simply a fine example of music, whichever genre you want to pigeon-hole the band into.

Track Listing:-

1 Right Brothers
2 Cricket versus Ant
3 Buckets of Oil
4 So Strange
5 Loserville
6 Cathy Ann
7 Double Clutch
8 Sap
9 Jack the Knife
10 Jewel
11 Upside Down
12 Hi Ho Silver