Into her fifth album since 2009, Samantha Crain still hasn’t achieved the recognition she deserves. All the positive reviews by the critics and quite electrifying live shows interlaced with Crain’s penchant for great storytelling and wry sense of humor haven’t helped either. Yet.
Hopefully, her later album “You Had Me At Goodbye” will be able to help. It should. Along with already known strengths as great songwriting, singing, and lyrics, the album adds another notch in the form of more detailed and worked-out arrangements, including strings and brass. The track that particularly benefits is “The Loneliest Handsome Man”, a Crain staple ballad with her always to the point and laced with humor lyrics.
‘I look like the sun is in my eyes, you had me at goodbye, I know it’s an antiseptic greeting, man you think I could do better, but I don’t think I can’ – Antiseptic Greeting
Crain has decided to put herself into somebody else’s shoes in the number of songs on this album. “Smile When You Call” sounds as if she is telling the story of the lover from Jimmy Webb’s classic “Wichita Lineman” and “Betty’s Eulogy” puts words in the mouth of Will Rogers’ wife.
Musicianship, as is always the case on Crain’s albums is impeccable, and the acoustic guitar interplay on “Red Sky, Blue Mountain” can serve as a reminder that all the intricate arrangements will not be missed when these songs are played live.
As is usual with Crain, plaudits from critics keep on flowing - “Mojo” thinks she is “grasping a whole new world”, while “Uncut” likes her “experimenting with musical form. I’m sure they had “Smile When” in mind where harmony vocals, subtle electronics, and woodwinds hint at something really new.
Whether all this will mean that “fifth is the charm” for Crain is really hard to tell, but she definitely deserves it.
