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Review: 'HERSH, KRISTIN'
'Wyatt At The Coyote Palace (CD & Book)'   

-  Label: 'Omnibus Press'
-  Genre: 'Indie' -  Release Date: '25th November 2016'

Our Rating:
This is Kristin's latest solo Book/album and as I only have the music to review I can't comment on what the book adds to the experience. It is totally solo as she plays all the instruments on the album herself. The album is named after the house her son used to visit to watch the Coyotes who had inhabited an abandoned house situated behind the studio where most of the album was recorded.

It opens with the slow and ruminative Bright which is a good taste of what is going to unfold over a double album of fairly introspective material. Even the banjo at the beginning of Bubble Net is almost casual and so laid back to be sleepy as she seems to switch to a guitar and then a deeper sounding guitar. The feeling of relaxation continues as Kristin lulls you into her world as she breathlessly whispers "there's no tomorrow" into your ear and the strings make it seem like a eulogy.

In Stitches as a title conjures up the sort of joke that leaves you in stitches but this is more about the sort of day that can leave you needing to be stitched back together again as your life and relationship fall to pieces. Until halfway through at least, when things seem to brighten up and maybe she has found a way out.

Secret Codes is about the secret codes between lovers that hint at what else may be happening. Its slow and imploring as well as a brave statement that the other half no longer needs Kristin's help. Green Screen keeps with the slow pattern and questioning lyrics.

The opening of Hemmingway's Tell sounds like she's stolen the riff from kill Your Sons before it becomes a slow strum and as with everything on this album a true tale in the lyrical department. Detox is probably my favourite song on the album as it feels almost like a pop song even if she's singing about not ever really taking a detox but needing one from you.

Wonderland is barely there as Kristin intones that she's in trouble and then the song begins to build in pace and intensity as the story unfolds of what trouble she's in. Day Three is sort of in the aftermath when everything is still to be decided and will it last beyond. Diving Bell is a hard strummed tale of more despair.

Killing Two Birds is angry and yet sounds almost upbeat: well as upbeat as this album ever gets. The backing vocals on Guadalupe are the bit of the song I come back to. They are very enchanting and yet feel like they have been taken from the quiet bit of Stairway To Heaven of all places.

The second disc opens with American Copper: a controversial subject these days down to the way they behave. While this might tread lightly musically it doesn't shy away from saying a few things. August, however, feels like you're sitting out on a riverbank in the sun.

Guess what Some Dumb Runaway is about? Yep, you got it, another slow, quiet tune telling a desperate little tale. From The Plane is like a message from a distance with some squelchy stuff going on under the strumming. Sun Blown is played at about double the speed of the rest of the album and stands out as it's more of a melodic pop song even as she's singing about dissolution it almost feels happy clappy!!

Elysian Field's feels like you're laid back in them, just floating off somewhere, before Soma, Goes Slapstick is a bit more pensive and helps wake you from your torpor. Cooties doesn't sound like you have them but well, if you have, boy have they made you depressed.

I think all the carol singers reading this need to learn Christmas Underground and add it to their repertoire as a good dark riposte to all the false jollity of the season even if this is in no way a part of the war against Happy Holidays happening on Fox News these days. Between Piety And Desire is fuller than when I saw Kristin live recently and brings the heartbreak and pain within the lyrics to the forefront.

Shakey Blue Can is one more barely there strum with naked lyrics as Kristin continues to bare her soul for us. The album closes in the same way with Shotgun, one last slow rumination that has made this album work so well as a backdrop to all sorts of stuff. I've managed to hear this about 7 or 8 times now and somehow it feels more textural than song-based, working almost like a suite of music where the lyrics are as much another texture. Yet, when you listen to the words of course they are, of course, vital.

You can order the Book and album here:

Kristin Hersh book online
  author: simonovitch

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HERSH, KRISTIN - Wyatt At The Coyote Palace (CD & Book)