Patty Griffin
‘Patty Griffin’ (PGM Recordings/Thirty Tigers)
The turning point of Patty Griffin’s 10th album comes in the middle, in the haunting, tension-filled “What Now,” where she asks of the sea, while Robert Plant provides background howls: “Where to? What next? What now?”
Before that song, “Patty Griffin” focuses on intensely personal matters, as the narrator of “Mama’s Worried” sings of the emotional toll that economic hardship takes on a family, while “River” uses the powerful imagery of nature to explain the dynamics of a relationship.
After that song, Griffin steers the album toward broader topics, where she examines how we can try to move forward together in a world that seems to thrive on people tearing each other apart.
In “Coins,” Griffin talks about how some men use money to dominate women who are intellectually superior to them. In “Boys from Tralee,” she tells a harrowing tale of immigration over a Celtic arrangement, connecting the current immigration debate to the experiences of previous generations of immigrants. And in “What I Remember,” she uses a gorgeous acoustic ballad to tell a stunning story that reveals itself to be from a sexual assault survivor.
She is even more direct in the bluesy “The Wheel,” with Griffin drawing parallels between trying to fight the rain and trying to fight racism, as she tells the story of Eric Garner, who died on Staten Island in 2014 after police put him in a chokehold.
Griffin has always been one of the best singersongwriters around, with her work covered by everyone from the Dixie Chicks to Kelly Clarkson. (Her brilliant new ballad “Just the Same” should be a hit — if not for her, then someone else.) Since her diagnosis with breast cancer two years ago and undergoing treatment, Griffin has said she sees the world differently. The result is one of the best albums of the year. And with “Patty Griffin,” we all benefit from her recovery. before refocusing.
And few singers can use straightforward ballads as defiant anthems the way Dido has, adding “Give You Up” and “Walking By” to her already formidable catalog.
However, Dido can still manage some surprises. The thudding “Hell After This” is a sly, Tracey Thornish thrill, while the loping swagger of “Mad Love” is a fun change of pace.
“Still on My Mind” shows Dido, with help from her brother Rollo Armstrong of Faithless fame, still crafting her own vision of pop, untouched by the outside world. song’s wordless vocal hook recapitulates Armand Van Helden’s house classic “U Don’t Even Know Me”; “Like Sugar” thrives on an all-bass-line hook. Only a former member of Major Lazer could’ve put her over the druggy dub of “Isn’t That Enough,” especially as Khan has made a point of getting clean since the death of her friend Prince. So although there’s nothing here worthy of a Melle-Meland-Stevie-Wonder intro, can I sell you on a onewoman Basement Jaxx revival? Brexit, #BlackLivesMatter, and Tories are the order of the day.
With fellow remaining original Specials Lynval Golding and Horace Panter (but not Dammers), Hall & Co. still make cranky reggae (“Embarrassed by You”) but mix it up with LCD Soundsystem-ish disco funk (“BLM”) and Latin music for a melting pot that boils over. When not touching on the health of their nation, as on the happily heavy-handed “Vote for Me,” and revolt on the circusy “Breaking Point,” Hall speak-sings his truth about his own psychological well-being on the genteel “The Life and Times (Of a Man Called Depression)” and the surprisingly optimistic “We Sell Hope.”
As always, the Specials are the sound of being glad to be unhappy.