Patti Scialfa has been busy of late. Her third release ‘Play It As It Lays,’ follows relatively hot on the heels of her second (released in 2004), which had arrived a long time after the dust had settled following her well-received 1993 debut, ‘Rumble Doll’.
She seems much more at home on this latest collection, her voice having hoarsened a little further to perfectly fit the blues sound and imagery, such as the ‘dirty cotton sky’ in opener ‘Looking for Elvis’. Many blues hallmarks can be found across these ten songs, from mouth organs and slide guitar to bitter break-ups. Yet whilst the record succeeds, at times it does feel that Scialfa-written tracks such as ‘Town Called Heartbreak’ are but identikit representations of the genre.
This is not the case all the way through, however, and at its best this album manages to recall the likes of Lucinda Williams, such as on the romantically- themed title track, whilst ‘Like Any Woman Would’ and ‘Rainy Day Man’ belie almost Motown-like sensibilities in their guitar licks, big choruses, and particularly in their insistent backing vocals.
‘Play Around,’ is another example which seems as though something different is being attempted, with some deviation from the blues template in its employment of an underlying, incongruent, tribal-sounding drum rhythm, albeit low in the mix.
Over all though, this album plays it safe and there is nothing earth shattering here. At its best, this is a competent release which will no doubt please Scialfa’s existing fans, without necessarily attracting too many new recruits.
And what do you know? I got all the way through this review without even mentioning that she is married to a certain Bruce Springsteen, who plays a number of instruments on the record. (Well, nearly.)
