Sweetheart Rodeo [CD]

Dawn Landes - Sweetheart Rodeo [CD]

UK release of the New York-based Indie Folk singer/songwriter's 2009 album. Recorded in Landes' own studio (Salt lands in Brooklyn) with regular collaborator, drummer and all-rounder Ray Rizzo, guitarist Josh Kaufman and bassist Annie Nero, the album kicks off with 'Young Girl', which ponders gender stereotyping - competitive boys, jealous girls - over a reductive and distorted keyboard riff. The haunting 'Money in the Bank' marries down-home hippie wisdom ('the night before you die, what are you gonna buy?') to a glorious chorus bolstered by a wistful French horn. Landes even drums on an unlikely cover of Margo Guryan's already unlikely 'Love', a 1968 collision of cool Jazz and nascent Psychedelia. By the album's conclusion, the wobbly wedding march of 'All Dressed in White', you'll probably be thinking of giving love a try. Cooking Vinyl.