Album Reviews

Maria Taylor

Something About Knowing

2013-11-05

1/2 of Azure Ray and Saddle Creek alum Maria Taylor is back with her fifth solo LP Something About Knowing. Starting her career with longtime friend and collaborator Orenda Fink in a band described by their label as "lushly haunted, dreamy folk pop," Taylor has been a regular on Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)'s radar. She has also collaborated with the likes of Michael Stipe, Moby, and David Barbe. At the end of the day, this album sounds pretty familiar to anyone acquainted with Azure Ray or Taylor's previous solo work.

Guitar lines echo through an atmosphere wrought with reverb, bleepy-bloopy synth arpeggios dot the highway, and the drums provide a paint-by-numbers framework ready to go for any given 4:4 time signature, I-IV-V chord progression pop jam. Sure, there are folk and country influences here and there (the slide guitar on "Saturday in June," namely), but songs like "Tunnel Vision" denote that this is at its core a pop rock album. On the title track, a refrain of "I've got everything" repeats atop a buoyant and undeniably joyous melody. To say the lyrics on Something About Knowing are optimistic would be a massive understatement. In fact, I Had A Baby and Now My Life is Completely Shiny and Beautiful may have been a more apt title. Taylor's fifth solo attempt is absolutely pleasant, which in itself is the greatest flaw.

Recommended Tracks: #3 "Tunnel Vision", #6 "Something About Knowing"

Sigmund Steiger

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