:: Track Listing

1. The Overture
2. 2 Days Smug and Sober
3. Chantal and Leroy
4. Not a Doll
5. Vincent Gallo
6. The Wine Song
7. Jody and Sue
8. Bigger Bed
9. Slept All Afternoon
10. Yanksgiving
11. Hangover
12. Outro/Credits

:: Record Review

Carolyn Mark and the New Best Friends

The Pros and Cons of Collaboration
(Mint; 2004)

Rating: 80%
Combined Rating: 77%


I really wasn't sure what to make of Carolyn Mark's third and newest album, The Pros and Cons of Collaboration, when I first heard it. Though impressed, by the end of the cursory listen, I found myself leaning toward "not quite genius, not overwhelmingly entertaining but not just. . . good." I tried to think of something to describe her style, one word to describe it all. . . but nothing came. Even now, as I listen closer and strain to seperate the strings of perfect beats that weave together, mixing, entwining, creating nothing but enormously arranged and catchy songs . . . I find myself even more impressed by Mark's talent, but still curious as to what it was exactly I've just heard. But here we go anyway.

Pros and Cons of Collaboration may just be her most diverse and impressive record yet. It's melodically simple, unmistakably country, coyly romantic and, just as every great artist has something that not many around them utilize, wonderfully crude. Carolyn exudes sex with her voice but also demands respect for her obvious-as-day talent and true blue country heart.

Though "2 Days Smug And Sober," following the clever instrumental overture, certainly isn't to be completely ignored, it is with "Chantel and Leroy" that Carolyn really hits upon something great. Carolyn's lyrics are smart and crazy and they command you to go back and hear the line again: "We checked out the starry plough and the band was shit, no smoking allowed/ So we stood on the corner awhile/ Trying to get the bouncer to smile." The mouth of a trucker at one moment and the mouth of a forlorn lover, complete with heart on sleeve, at another. It's a duality that is found in all the record's best material -- from the upbeat shuffle of "The Wine Song" ("Don't torture me with funky homemade U-brew discount shit") to slower numbers like "Not A Doll," the wonderfully structured "Jody and Sue" and the piano-centric "Hangover."

Comparisons can be, and surely will be, made to Neko Case (who she even jokingly mentions on another highlight, "Vincent Gallo") -- though only for the achingly beautiful way both women can create mood with vocals alone -- as well as Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker and Maria McKee. The New Best Friends, meanwhile, have a terrific big-band element to their sound -- which is impressive when you consider the type of instruments they use -- while still maintaining a traditional country and blues backing with trace elements of edgier hard rock.

The Pros and Cons of Collaboration is one of the best albums I've heard so far this year, but nobody can really escape criticism, if even by a little. At times the record lacks the kind of unpredictable edge that someone like Case has in spades, and though standouts like "Jody And Sue" certainly help to prove me wrong in that respect, Collaboration does have a small shortage of tracks like it. That said, however, Carolyn Mark has more than proven herself a talented lyricist, vocalist and songwriter with this record, one that definitely shows her quickly stepping toward something truly great. And so, here I sit, anxiously awaiting the next to come from the talented and promising Miss Mark and The New Best Friends, knowing that I probably won't know quite what to make of that, either, other than knowing that something very unique and special is going on. Candice Osmond :: 01 June 2004 |