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(2022) Lou Turner - Microcosmos
Review:
Lou Turner finds the cosmic in the everyday on this second solo album, delivering warm, well-considered songs with a casual aplomb. The Nashville songwriter frames her philosophical queries in the warmest, simplest terms, framing them in the subtle twang of acoustic guitar, the softest brush on snares. She views planetary history through the homey lens of her backyard and every verse of space-traveling “Microcosmos” ends with the image of her cat pawing at the sky. Joe Kenkel and Trevor Nikrant, Turner’s compatriots from countrypolitan songwriters’ collective The Styrofoam Winos, rally to support these delicate but well-crafted compositions. There are lovely little instrumental touches throughout, the brass and pedal steel that billow out of “Tame and Ugly,” the Latin syncopation of “Green and Growing,” the really kind of perfect marimba rattles that punctuate “The Smallest Mercy.” And yet, though they are by no means minimally made, the songs have a fresh, clear purity. Embellishments never get in the way of the clean lines of the words and melody. The title track is a marvellous thing, transparent and mystical and wryly humorous at the same time. It ponders our place in the universe, but also takes time to poke fun at gender reveal parties (“The planet was born in the back yard/No gender reveal but plenty of blue”). But the other songs have their own charm. “Big Ole Head” swaggers and fiddle-sways like a lost Holly Golightly tune, while “What We Might Find” turns high school ordinaries like hall passes and speech class into the impetus for cosmic wandering. Turner’s songwriting is the main draw, idiosyncratic and modern but steeped in a Nashville tradition, but she also gives a nod to another writer, Simon Joyner, in her cover of “You Got Under My Skin.” The song upends cliches about cowboys, romantic relationships and the creative process, and you can see why Turner felt a kinship. These songs are clever, idiosyncratic, precise and funny, so carefully crafted that they seem familiar immediately, but also surprising. They avoid the easy resolution every time. — dusted
Track List:
01 - Microcosmos
02 - Look Out Below
03 - Green and Growing
04 - Empty Tame and Ugly
05 - Dancing to Hold Music
06 - What Might We Find There
07 - I’ve Got the O’s
08 - You Got Under My Skin
09 - Big Ole Head
10 - Smallest Mercy
11 - Hot Soup, Cold Bowl
Media Report:
Genre: alt-country, folk-rock, indie-folk
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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