Album Review

Dawn Landes – Sweet Heart Rodeo

• 15th Sep 2009

Hard times for the traditional singer-songwriter. With a glut of acoustic-plucking indie types on the market, the ensuing bottleneck will inevitably leave some underappreciated gems. The jury is perhaps still out on Dawn Landes, already acoustic royalty by association to husband Josh Ritter. Opener “Young Girl” is a good enough way to get things started: an uptempo, pouty retro rocker that shows off Landes’ smoky, understated voice and belies the gentler sound of much of the following material. “Romeo” is breezy indie-country in the Conor Oberst mould, foot-tapping and pleasingly unchallenging lyrically.

It’s as if Landes is saying “but seriously…”, when the stark “Money in the Bank” comes along, evidently written from a much darker place and one of the strongest displays of a considerable songwriting talent on this album. From then onwards, the songstress flits between gently affecting acoustic numbers like “Little Miss Holiday”, the beautifully yearning “Brighton”, and less weighty fare like “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” and “Clown”. Across the board though, the catchy chorus:song ratio is a winning 1:1 and Landes’ country vocal stylings and moving, simplistic lyrics consistently please.