Love Shelby

Her last record, the Grammy winning I Am Shelby Lynn clocked in at just 36 minutes leaving most of us who were impressed with it gagging for more. On first acquaintance, Love Shelby doesn’t appear to have the same sonic edginess that came with smouldering, post-modern country ballads like ‘Black Light Blue’ and ‘Leaving’ which made her debut one of the essential records of 2000.

The opener, ‘Trust Me’ comes across as a fairly bog standard studio workout which wouldn’t sound out of place on any of Texas’ recent albums while ‘Bend’ could be a Sheryl Crowe outtake. Things move up a notch on the purer country rock of ‘Jesus On A Greyhound’ and with help from former Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne ballads such as ‘Wall In Your Heart’ and the Beatlesque ‘I Can’t Wait’ more than make the grade, the latter building into a forceful rocker. The strongest of the upbeat numbers, ‘Killing Kind’, also the current single, has deservedly garnered widespread airplay and Lynne comes across as a latter day Rickie Lee Jones on the gorgeous late-night torch song, ‘Tarpoleon Napoleon’.

Yet another fine understated slow-burner, ‘All Of A Sudden You Disappeared’ recalls Daniel Lanois in the production and guitar sound, while her version of John Lennon’s ‘Mother’ is a fitting finale to a record that grows in leaps and bounds with repeated listening.

Colm O’Hare 8