the new deana carter album is the best thing i've heard in months

How "Carter" is she?

How Carter USM, you mean?

I just got this too, Scott. I like it a lot myself, not the kind of thing I usually go for. It's an old-fashioned concept album? Sounds like she's been into Jimmy Webb, Jack Nitzsche, even Nick Drake, the Beatles, etc.? Is that what you hear? Anyway, it really works and it's pretty much constantly suprising, ingenious, actually. Hmm.

i have a lot more to add about this record. just haven't had a chance! it's the kinda thing that just gets better and better the more i hear it. more later. (when little rufus goes to bed.)

has this been released yet?

she is sexy and makes good shagging music.
i'd shave my legs for her.

I'm digging on my shelf right now for her breakthrough album from 1996, Did I Shave My Legs For This. It was one of my faves that year. You're gonna love it, I'd wager.

I do hear the Beatles on some songs. and the bacharach i hear in the non-obvious minor-key melodies. most of the songs don't just go for the jugular, they move around in tricky ways. I love that in pop music. some of it reminds me of Iris Dement's My Life. But My Life really was more of an art-project and much less poppy. I seem to recall Iris getting a little poppier on her album after that, but I didn't think that it worked as well. At least for me. The duet with Delbert was nice though. (I don't own a copy anymore.) I don't know much about Deana's other albums so I don't know if she has always mixed these elements of folk, pop, and country together. What I love about this album is how deep it is. quality-wise, that is. and, what the hell, lyrically too at times. The last 4 songs might be the strongest on the album! Which fits in with the whole conept-album design. She is stronger and wiser by the end of it. The first song is the obvious single. It's catchy top-40 stuff. And the hook: "I wanna be the girl you left me for" is so simple and perfect I can't believe that 400 people haven't come up with it before. Maybe they have. "One Day At A Time" is the most country-radio/CMT ready of the bunch. Plus, it has all those pop-cult pairings that stick in yer head: Singing along to "Jack & Diane", Thelma & Louise,Elvis & Kurt Cobain, Jesus & John Wayne(!). The acoustic guitar in it sounds a lot more alt or contempo folk then country acoustic usually sounds to me though. "Ordinary" has Shania-like rhythms and vocal lines, but Shania would never admit the following: "Oh wouldn't it be scary just being ordinary" because Shania is usually way too busy trying to convince people that she is an actual human being. It has that nice Beatlesesque ending to it too, but nothing that Mutt wouldn't try someday. Nice all the same though. The miracle of a song like "In A Heartbeat" is that it sounds like a song that was built to be oversold. The chorus, the arrangement, the whole thing should be a goopy string-laden bid for hitdom, but it's not! She undersells the vocals and makes it so much more effective by doing so. This is what a good interpreter does of course. They serve the song. But it's rare to see someone not go for the easy knockout punch these days.(in pop and country or country-pop). It makes me like her even more. "She's Good For You" sounds like one of the best Sheryl Crow songs I've ever heard. "Not Another Love Song" is definitely Webb-worthy! I'd like to know if Deana wrote it. I think I threw away any press stuff that came with the cd and the cd I got doesn't have any info. It's so simple and strong. The album is the story of her life, does she write all her own stuff like Iris? "Sunny Day" (and it's funny cuz I'm listening to a Free album right now and as I typed that song title I realized that they were also singing a song called "Sunny Day".) has a great Fleetwood mac/FM radio Cali vibe to it. Love that guitar too. I love the production, her voice, these songs. Just a joy to listen to. It's kinda nice to hear something that just hits you immediately in the pleasure center of your brain. I'll keep my eye out for her other stuff.

Nice one, Frank!:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0518,kogan2,63566,22.html

reliably great article! Frank is so ace.

I'm trying to figure out which Nashville meat-and-three her rival parks her car on Woodland Street to walk to (in my favorite song on the record, "She's Good for You"). Three vegetables and meat, and macaroni and cheese is a vegetable.

Great piece Frank did here--he nailed it. Her voice takes some getting used to--it's actually a bit creepy, somehow--but I love the arrangements on this record.

Thanks for the kind words. To answer one of Scott's questions: I haven't heard anything from her first two albums other than "Strawberry Wine," but her most previous one, I'm Just a Girl, is definitely worth getting. Not as varied or colorful in its instrumentation, but louder, and has intensity similar to Story's on the soft ones (esp. good are "Me and the Radio" and "You and Tequila") and subtly fab fourish harmonies on "There's No Limit," which was a great single that got some airplay. "Liar" and "Girls' Night" are the rockers, and I love the cute voice getting tough. "Girls' Night" has "Jumpin Jumpin" type lyrics (the girls are leavin their men at home) and a rap and a rave-up and a freakout.

Hey, I got a thank-you note from Deana Carter! She called the review "awesome." But the review didn't post at the Voice site until 5 days after she wrote the thank-you. Chuck doesn't know how she could have seen it. Maybe she hadn't read it but simply assumed that any review I wrote *would* be awesome!

Her handwriting is cute, but with a burr underneath.

The card was embossed with the word "DEANA" in pretty script on the front.

She underlined "so" ("thank you *so* much...")! She uses exclamation points! She ended with a peace sign! She's such a girl!