Performance: Strangely Beautiful
Recording: Very Good
In her newest album (produced, as usual, by her husband, T-Bone Burnett), Sam Phillips takes us on a magical mystery tour, blending Sixties pop-guitar twangs, moody synthesizer swirls, swaying Latin rhythms, and ornate chamber-music string flourishes. Phillips is a compelling singer, her strong alto always ready to pierce the skies in a soaring burst, but her lyrics seldom connect with reality as most of us know it. The metaphors through which she almost always communicates are hauntingly obtuse, as in the disturbing, post-apocalyptic Raised on Progress [sic], where she sings, "To the furnace for shade to the dust for a drink." When Phillips's dreamlike lyrics come closer to the surface, however, she can stun you with the resonance of her imagery. After describing a troubled relationship in Private Storm she observes, "Time doesn't heal, the scars turn into wounds." In short, Sam Phillips is always wondrous to hear, and when her songwriting intentions are clear, she's something of a pop treasure.