New album review: Samantha Crain’s ‘You (Understood)’

My eMusic review of folk singer/songwriter Samantha Crain’s beautiful sophomore LP, You (Understood), out today on Ramseur Records:

In “Blueprints,” the second track on Samantha Crain’s sophomore LP You (Understood), the Shawnee, Oklahoma, folk songwriter sings, “Into your eyes, I climbed/ I have no eyes of my own.” In a way, it sums up the premise of the record: Crain wanted to document relationships and incidences with 16 different people in her life. Most songs seem to be written from Crain’s perspective, but there’s no doubt that she had to examine every topic from both sides in order to effectively tell the stories. And while she might be singing about specific people, Crain excels at finding the universal themes in each narrative.

The mournful and haunting “Wichitalright” considers the overwhelming choices confronting Crain’s generation of 20-somethings; she assures them, “You can take it slow/ You don’t have to know it all.” Amid spiraling electric guitar and ghostly “oohs” on the tempo-shifting “Toothpicks” — a song inspired by the repetitiveness of touring the country — she sing-chants, “Permanence is just not my way of being.” Similarly, “Blueprints” finds her musing, “That’ll be a pretty day, when I cannot find my way/ ‘Cause lost is nothing to be afraid of.”

You (Understood) has a slightly harder edge than 2008′s Songs In The Night: Bluesy, glitchy guitars accelerate “Holdin’ That Wheel”; “Two-Sidedness” employs intertwining electric guitars between choruses and crests with a lengthy bagpipe solo. But tracks like “Santa Fe” — which features labelmates Frontier Ruckus on vocals and banjo — and album opener “Lions” highlight the soulfulness that made Crain’s first effort, as well as this one, so captivating.

Lovely video of “Santa Fe” (featuring Matt and Dave from Frontier Ruckus):

Samantha Crain’s MySpace
Frontier Ruckus’s MySpace