The Secret Sisters have come a long way since their debut album. Self-titled, and featuring a bundle of cover songs from a variety of genres, Laura and Lydia Rogers needed to step outside their comfort zone and get real. For ‘Put Your Needle Down’, the T-Bone Burnett-produced 12-song collection released last month, that’s exactly what they did. Despite articulating a newfound artistic freedom and a daring recklessness that peeps in between their traditional roots, the girls remain largely true to form in terms of their liberal approach to genre.
Take, for example, their plentiful influence from 60’s music. While The Secret Sisters are generally classified as country/Americana (whatever that means), a distinct portion of the album is devoted to tracks within a Motown and classic soul aesthetic. Songs like ‘Black And Blue’ and ‘I Cannot Find A Way’ are expertly orchestrated, instantly acquiring the feel of a classic and sounding more like an homage to that era of music than anything else, such is their faithful interpretation of the style. ‘Lonely Island’ goes further, harking back to their initial comparisons to acts like The Everly Brothers, channelling a 50’s crooner sound that really builds on their beautiful sisterly harmonies, all the while updating it with shuddering violin that puts the listener somewhat on edge. They do the same with ‘Good Luck, Good Night, Goodbye’; while the basis of the song is rooted in 60’s pop/soul, found in the way the melody moves and the key in which it stays, there is an edge to it in the way the downward guitar strum and some production techniques recall 80’s pop/rock. The effect is subtle, yet it achieves the desired effect of stylistic fluidity that make them such an interesting group to listen to.
The girls also dabble in a kind of throwback country rock that isn’t too dissimilar to the likes of Lindi Ortega. Certainly the Brandi Carlile-penned opener ‘Rattle My Bones’ can be seen that way; earthy and percussive in its orchestration, the catchy, upbeat foot-tapper weaves through a modern folk structure, all the while remembering an outlaw country sound that confirms its vintage appeal. What becomes overwhelmingly clear here is that they are fascinated with an era they had no part in. ‘Dirty Lie’ is a Bob Dylan co-write, sent to the Sisters in the form of an unfinished demo from the 1980’s. They completed it and the result is a sexy, jazzy, cabaret-like song of seduction, whose irony of not reciprocating another’s feelings is not lost on the listener.
Laura and Lydia has been careful in their ascent to a more grown-up album. ‘Rattle My Bones’ and ‘Dirty Lie’ clearly show a sexiness and a sensuality devoid from their debut, without creating an image of promiscuity or sluttiness. Instead, as with ‘Bad Habit’, it is gentle, albeit raw, but altogether more old-fashioned. Details are left to the imagination, preferring to focus on sexual emotions rather than pure lust. The result is powerful, and the slowed-down folk rock of ‘Bad Habit’ titillates the listener with every softly-sung word, surprising them with the bluesy country twist of the melody on the chorus, and returning to the beginning of the cycle. One thing you can surely say about ‘Put Your Needle Down’ is that it is well thought out; there seems to be reason behind every melisma, every guitar jangle, every casual sentence finisher.
One of these seemingly deliberate decisions is to make the record darker than we might expect. ‘If I Don’t’ warns a self-destructing lover that she’ll leave if he doesn’t clean up his ways, reminding him that if she doesn’t love him, no-one will, so he better get himself together. ‘The Pocket Knife’, in all its country rock broodiness, bellows with sharp, high-pitched harmonies at a mother who is trying to marry off her daughter, not allowing her to enjoy her youth independently. Equally the sinister, moody ‘luka’ weaves the spinning tale of an abusive, dangerous father who the young narrator and her fiancé run away from to get married in secret. For all their trying, the song comes to a crashing, cinematic climax with their deaths.
If we can take anything from this, then, it’s that The Secret Sisters are as much singing about their own growth as they are the deep, dark south and the trials and tribulations of love and relationships (‘Let Me Be Lonely’ is an especially beautiful, emotional lyric, if drowned in unnecessary production). Rather than being the quintessential collection, however, it merely attempts to provide a glimpse into what the girls are capable of, the first chapter in many different stories. If their self-titled debut was their chance to introduce themselves to the world, ‘Put Your Needle Down’ is where they get stuck in and lay down the law.
Consider that law laid down. Six feet under, perhaps.
