Customer Reviews

Asking for Flowers

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to believe that Kathleen Edwards has been able to churn out 3 excellent albums in a row, without the slightest sign of anything
being rushed, duplicated, or cheesy, but she has done it.
When I listened to her first album, "Failer", I must have played it 50 times, and thought it was the best album made by anyone, in any genre, in 20 years. At first, I thought her second, "Back To Me" flagged a little, but then realized I needed to listen to it more and that it had simply taken a turn toward a more rocked up sound.

"Asking For Flowers" is yet another beautiful turn, still preserving Edwards gorgeously emotional husky voice and introspective story telling. But the melodies are more delicate and mature, as are the stories. If you enjoyed her folk, rock, and humorous styles on the first two albums, you will not be disappointed with this CD. All of those elements are still there. Songs like "I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory" and "The Cheapest Key" show her cut-to-the-chase fighting side. Songs like "Asking For Flowers" are simply heartbreakingly beautiful and honest.
"Alicia Ross" carries its own weight about a kidnapped murdered girl, even if you don't know the true story on which it was based.

Musically, the styles are very similar to her other work, deftly mixing in some of Kathleen's solo violin playing, and the band's slide electric guitar and harmonica with just the right touches to add snap to the song arrangements.

The only knock I have against this album is the same one I had for the other two. The recording quality is just not up to par. All her albums have a mid-rangey muddiness that make the band sound like they were recorded in a metal box. The drums sound somewhat like old pots and pans, the bass is lost in murkiness with no definition, and her voice needs to be up more in the overall mix. But the musicianship, her wonderful singing, and beautiful songs are just so darn good that I can overlook the recording quality with ease.

If the rest of the stupid music industry would wake up and listen to albums like this, they would start to understand what it means to create a quality album - an album worth buying and listening to over and over again so you can appreciate it, like the layers of color on a fine oil painting.

It's truly rare to find somebody who can write good song after good song, never becoming repetitive or boring, and always stretching. This must be what it was like when The Beatles were releasing new albums in the 1960s.

Bravo, Kathleen!

I think that "Failer" was one of the best debut albums of the last 10
years. I don't find that I listen to "Back To Me" very much, and I
wondered whether maybe the first album would stand as the best of
Kathleen's career.

I did not know what to expect with "Asking for Flowers". I'd read in
No Depression that Kathleen had experimented a bit more, and I did
not find that particularly appealing, frankly.

The first couple of spins did not catch my attention. I didn't hear
any song which had a hook that caught me.

But somewhere along the line, this CD really started to get to me.
It's alternately poignant and humorous--take the juxtaposition
of 'Alicia Ross', a haunting, true story about the murder of a young
girl, with 'I Make The Dough, You Get the Glory" with its already
classic "You're the great one, I'm Marty McSorley" line. That one
will resonate with Canadians and hockey fans.

'Buffalo' is tremendous, 'The Cheapest Key' is straight ahead, no-
nonsense, no-message rock. 'Scared at Night' is beautiful.

This album has it all--poignant lyrics, great rock, catchy hooks and some nice humor. Truly a keeper--and a masterpiece.

Anyway, if you ask me, this one is a classic and leads my 'Best of
2008'.

Rick V
vosmo
(Please note--no mention of 'Neil Young' or 'Lucinda Williams' in the above review!)

Canadian artist Kathleen Edwards' latest offering "Asking For Flowers" is a very nice step up from her previous release "Back To Me" and is a true diamond in the rough. Even though some people have compared her to a younger version of Lucinda Williams, Kathleen Edwards is definitely a bona fide star in her own right and this release just cements what has been building over the last ten years. Each successive release has been more revealing than the last and the song quality and musicianship has continued to evolve, improve dramatically, and has been nothing short of amazing.

This disc easily has five or six tunes that will grab you by the collar and not let go. The lead-off song, "The Cheapest Key" has a great tempo and other songs such as "Buffalo," "Alicia Ross," "Run," "Oil Man's War," "Goodnight, California" and "Oh Canada" are solid, well-composed and finely crafted alt-country and rock numbers that are both a delight to hear and only get better and better with repeated playings. Yet, even with this strong line-up of songs, the true shining gems on this disc are the tracks "Scared At Night" and the title song "Asking For Flowers." In my modest opinion, they are genuine works of art!

When I first picked up this disc, I didn't quite know what to really make of it but with a little patience and an open mind, this release has quickly grown to be a personal favourite. I can only imagine that by the time I've finally had my fill of the CD - which may be never - there will be some serious skid marks to show for it. It's just that damned good!

Do yourselves a huge, huge favour and pick up a copy a.s.a.p. For fans of alt-country, pop and rock, this disc will not disappoint. Move over Lucinda, Kathleen's going to keep you company for a long, long time to come. This is, BY FAR, the best alt-country/rock release of 2008!

After loving her first two CDs, I wondered if she could keep it up for the 3rd one. The answer is yes. More great songwriting. The title track is a beautiful look reflecting on a relationship. "Buffalo" describes a lost relationship in cold upstate NY. "I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory" has the qualities of a good country song. If you liked her other CDs, you will like this one. She once listed her musical influences as Tom Petty and fellow Canadian, Neil Young. another good CD from A very talented singer songwriter

O, me of little faith. I thought that Kathleen Edwards' musical career had stalled out. Her debut album of 2003 was a brilliant diamond in the rough, but her 2005 follow-up, though highly listenable, seemed to have polished all the edginess off of her work. Then came three years of silence.

Well, I needn't have worried... I guess Kathleen was just "pausing to reload." With "Asking for Flowers", Edwards has delivered a modern classic.

From the opening stately piano chords of "Buffalo", it is clear that Kathleen is working with a newfound confidence, finding subtle and ingenious ways to enlarge on her themes of windblown loneliness. "The Cheapest Key" follows, showing that she hasn't lost her knack for raucous send-ups of bad relationships. The title song rounds out a great opening trio of tunes, as one of Edwards' signature tales of patience stretched to the breaking point.

Throughout the album, there isn't one clunker. "Oh, Canada" is a blazing rant that shows exactly how incandescently Edwards can rock out. "Run", and "Goodnight, California" come close to borrowing a page from Neko Case's book of reverbed dreams. But, for me, the absolute peak of the album is "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory", which is the kind of good-timey rocker that Rod Stewart was once capable of... back when he, too, was a great storyteller in song. The Hammond organ on this track sounds uncannily like Ian McLagan of the Faces.

All in all, I think "Asking for Flowers" confirms the fact that Kathleen Edwards is in the forefront of the "alt-country" movers and shakers, along with Neko Case and Ryan Adams. At all of age twenty-eight, there is every reason to believe that she will continue to grow as an artist. Count yourself lucky if you are just discovering her, because she is the real thing.

I could sum this review up in one sentence: "Asking for Flowers" is phenomenal and you should buy it. But then you'd ask, "Why?" and I'd have no way of answering. So the long version goes something like this...

No matter where you come from or what your life experience has been, there will be at *least* one track on Kathleen Edwards' latest offering "Asking for Flowers" that will resonate with you. The haunting melancholy of "Buffalo". An achingly fond memory of a lost loved one inspired by "Scared at Night". A social conscience awakened by "Oh Canada" (which will *never* be confused with its better known namesake, "O Canada"). The wry, mildly caustic wit of "The Cheapest Key" or "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory". (You have to love a girl who can work Marty McSorley into a lyric!) Maybe the wistful regret in the title track will be what speaks to you. But one thing is certain. No matter your usual taste, and really no matter your opinion on her first two efforts, *something* on this album will hit you right between the eyes.

With "Asking for Flowers", Edwards shakes off all of the comparisons that followed her through her first two albums. While references to Neil Young or Lucinda Williams are certainly complimentary -- and apt -- here Edwards stands on her own. Where she should have been all along.

Can't wait to hear what she does next.

Let me start by admitting that I am a songwriter. This makes me simultaneously more critical of the failings of others willing to wear that badge and more ecstatic upon finding those few who sublimely take the art to some new level. With each album, Kathleen Edwards has done just that. This latest effort is no exception. What makes it different is that Edwards has changed the "formula"--such as it was. Her first two albums were finely-crafted detailed studies of personal relationships. Without hesitation, I count them as among the finest ten records of the 2000's. This latest is even better. Although it contains personal tales, it rarely seems to be about Edwards herself, but expands its canvas to the broader human comedy. It contains hook-laden pop songs, country-inflected story songs, and a genuine unabashed courageous work of undeniable genius: the extraordinary "Alicia Ross."

One thing that marked Edwards' first two albums was a highly idiosyncratic singing style. Although I personally loved the unique modulations of her pitch that conveyed both a vulnerability and an unapproachable strength, many I tried to turn on to Edwards' songs recoiled from the vocals without ever taking in the lyrical sophistication. Then, last year, Edwards sang a duet on John Doe's recent album that shocked me (and my reticent companions) with its unexpected tunefulness. Sure enough, Edwards' new album displays a newfound on-note singing that loses none of the soulfulness and beauty of her prior efforts.

Also evident here is Edwards' debt to Tom Petty and other hook-heavy-yet-full-of-integrity artists. Both musically and lyrically, these songs shine. Certain lines (e.g., "My life is like a picture, left out too long in the sun," "You're the Great One, I'm Marty McSorely") are the kind that make us songwriters set down our pens because it all seems hopeless. The musical hooks are similarly revelatory.

Also extraordinary is the production. The mixes, tones and feels are perfect for each song. It is clear that nothing was rushed on this album. The arrangements allow the songs to tell their stories comfortably and in their own time. The guitar work, frankly, is perfect--perfectly subtle, perfectly appropriate. Benmont Tench's organ and piano work is similarly inspired.

But for all the works of pop genius found in abundance here, there is one piece that goes beyond. "Alicia Ross" is based on the true story of an unfamous Toronto woman who disappeared from the home she shared with her mother--her body found months later in the back yard of a neighbor only because of the persistence of her mother in finding her. The literary genius of the song is the result of Edwards' extraordinarily literary device of telling the story from the perspective of the slain woman, who speaks from beyond her murder to her mother, apologizing for causing her such pain for not knowing where she was. The sheer unpretentiousness of the narrative makes utterly real the dialogue between this genuine woman and her mother. It is nothing merely so common as a song about a woman who died or even a woman who was unfairly taken too soon from those who loved her. Instead, it is nothing less than a perfectly uninflected tribute to the majesty of humanity and each of our capacities to love others without reservation. It is an example of that rare genius that is brave enough and subtle enough to allow the elegant emotional clarity of our simple unbearable emotional lives to speak.

For all its pop charms and languid beauty, "Asking For Flowers" is a substantial literary work, displaying equally the finery, grace and rhythm of great poetry, as well as the drama, humor and narrative core of the best novels. It is a great display of the songwriter's art.

Kathleen Edwards is a great songwriter, and this album is her best to date. A true "album," that holds together when listened to straight through, that succeeds as a whole. "Asking For Flowers" and "Oil Man's War" are my favorite cuts, and having heard her sing the devastating "Alicia Ross" live a couple of times was glad to see it included here. But from the early imagery contained in the first song's asking "have you ever seen lightning in snow?" to the haunting "Goodnight, California," this is a memorable record.

Leave it to Kathleen Edwards to make her third album, ASKING FOR FLOWERS, every bit as caustic and as interesting as her first two (FAILER; BACK TO ME) had been. She has once again made a recording that ends up being one of my favorites for this year, alongside those of other roots-rockers like Sheryl Crow, Allison Moorer, Lucinda Williams, and Tift Merrritt.

It's very hard NOT to compare Kathleen's approach to either that of Lucinda (as they share the same imperfect but sharp kinds of voices) or her fellow Canadian Neil Young, because she has the same kind of songwriting intelligence and ruthlessness that those two legends have. She is aided and abetted here by great backing musicians like ex-Lone Justice drummer Don Heffington, Tom Petty's keyboard guru Benmont Tench, former Linda Ronstadt bassist Bob Glaub, and alt-country pedal steel legend Greg Leisz throughout the album. This all helps make the going smoother for Kathleen, as she goes sardonic with "I Make The Dough (You Get The Glory)" (with its references to her home country's national sport of hockey, and 70s Vegas-era Elvis), and very political on "Oil Man's War", a very sharp broadside against Bush that is worthy of comparisons to the aforementioned Mr. Young.

As is the case with Neil and Lucinda, Kathleen's approach to things is an acquired taste; but once one acquires that taste, it's hard not to be impressed. ASKING FOR FLOWERS will hopefully expand her presence south of Canada even more.

"Don't be like that," she sings in "Buffalo," the wonderfully orchestrated opening song from Asking for Flowers. The poinancy of her plea is evident in a voice that is at once beautiful and bereft. No one today can fashion lyrics with more honesty and insight than Canadian, Kathleen Edwards. Her songs, with indelible snapshot imagery, world-weariness, and masterfully produced music, generate in the active listener empathy, compassion and, for those who've been wounded by Love, unmistakable recognition. Like visiting a great museum, listeners will come away from Asking for Flowers with a heightened awareness of their hearts, and their sensibilities. Great Art will do this every time, for those willing to go deep enough to experience it. And they will be left feeling thankful that Kathleen Edwards, as she did in her previous releases (Failer and Back to Me), has once more gone deep enough to create her art for us. This is a great record by a profoundly talented singer-songwriter.