Customer Reviews

Wreck Your Wheels

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

 

 

This new release is great and Kim Richey as an artist just keeps getting better and better. I have been a fan since her first CD 15 years ago and am still perplexed that she has not exploded in popularity in the music business. Kim is the best kept secret for all music lovers. I loved Chinese Boxes, her last CD, and this one continues the journey. There are the familiar melodies I have come to love from Kim, but her lyrics are always moving and tell a wonderful story, the way only Kim can tell it. Her voice just keeps getting better too and when she sings, you can hear the emotion in her voice. I had to pay import price for this, as it is not released here in the US yet, but it was worth every penney. I love it.

Came across Kim's music by accident and I'm so glad I did. Wreck your wheels is very typical of Kim's style, floating melodies, sung with passion that comes from writing such personal lyrics. Her voice is a wonderful mixture of tonal purity and emotional content. As a bonus Kim is a lovely lady with a very easy manner and a wicked sense of humour. Try it, you'll like it. :-)

I am a long-time Kim Richey fan. I own all her older CDs and always look forward to new releases. So it's difficult for me to state that I just was not very interested in her songs this time. The 2 that featured Matthew Ryan were the best for me, partly because I am a fan of his also. But there was no lyric "bite" to anything and actually very few melodic hooks either. Tasteful, restrained, pleasant, just not very memorable. Looking at the lyrics book and noting that every song was a co-write makes me wonder if that is part of the problem

Sharing the world with any one of the tracks on Kim Richey's latest release, `Wreck Your Wheels', gives the impression of walking through a dream. The combination of her delivery, part reverie, part whispered secrets and Neilson Hubbard's comforting production, the album moves along like a weekend river rafting trip. As the bordering banks glide by, Kim watches chronicling the life that lies along the shores. The mood is summer up as an album track describes the movement, "quiet now, softly now, careful how you go" ("Careful How You Go"). The music and voice come together to wrap around you, entering your ears, warming you inside and out.
Her latest effort is the result of Kim's fifteen year musical journey, a road trip that has included five critically acclaimed albums that have received two Grammy nods, landing her on the US Time Magazine list in 1999 for `Glimmer' and Alt Country album of the year for People Magazine with `Rise'. As time and technology change at an eye blinkingly fast rate, Kim's devotion to truth and her ability to transfer that message honestly into her work remain a constant.
On `Wreck Your Wheels', her sixth release, Kim paints the soundscape with an Americana brush. Sonically, the album has a real, organic tone and texture. Recorded in Nashville with her touring band, the results of using players familiar with each other allowed the production to be done with five musicians sitting in a room, allowing accomplished playing and intuitive musical directions to rule. The band came together to take the sounds on her last release, `Chinese Boxes', on the road. Time spent on stage playing and on the various modes of transport that carry musicians created friendships that are as present in the music as instruments and voices. Kim gives a personal view of the production, stating "we had a great time making the record - we recorded all in the same room at the same time, which was very cozy. It's a small studio. We used the front seat of the producer's Honda pulled up next to the door as an isolation booth for the electric guitar amp."
The easy drive of the sound is guided with the firm hand of assurance on the wheel. On the title track, Kim provides a rear view mirror glance at a relationship, masking over possible transgressions with an apology, "didn't mean to wreck your wheels". As emotions click by like white lines, the album ticks off every day events like road signs. Taking to the road and talking to those left behind ("Leaving 49") or enticing a friend or love interest to come along for the ride ("Once in Your Life") and that pesky little inner voice that say `heads up, bumps ahead' ("In the Years to Come") not only offer a glimpse into the life of the writer but become advice for the end user of the songs as well. There are times on the album where the weight of the message and the punch of an OMG moment are tempered with the smoothness of the delivery like on "Keys", where the secrets of life and the ways to open them are laid bare. At other points. the lines between musician and listener are blurred when all participants involved join together on both sides of the speakers as in "When the Circus Comes to Town", adding voices to a slowly building chorus, locking arms and notes for a united force to describe the sights..."shiny lights, hall of mirrors, midway barkers, girlie shows, ring a bell, win a prize, you can even get your fortune told".
Kim Richey takes control on her albums, no doubt lessons learned in the classrooms where she taught prior to entering her career as an American singer/songwriter. `Wreck Your Wheels' is a great example of that ability. Like all leaders worth the name, Kim never uses her natural role as the one in charge to rule with an iron fist. She is a gentle ruler and the listener is there willingly.
More on Kim Richey can be found on her website, kimrichey.com.

I've always been a fan of Kim Richey's, and this only solidify's my fan base more. I received the CD in just a short time and wearing it out. (Careful as you go ) my fav. I will have my new Cd, Just As I Am, on there soon.......

OK, I'm already in love from your previous albums, and then you come out with this one to seduce me even further! What an absolutely beautiful collection of songs. You deserve serious recognition. Your talent and growth as an artist reminds me of Patty Griffin's career...and that's the highest compliment I can pay you. Seriously, I'm blown away. WOW!

This is the sixth album from the excellent Ms Richey and while it will probably not convert many, it does please long time fans like me.

That's not to say that this is at all a bad record, far from it, (a very accomplished performance), it's mainly that, it just does not have any stand out tracks.

If you want to start with Kim Richey go to 2002's "Rise" or the "Collection" from 2004 as they her best work by far.

Back to "Wreck Your Wheels" though, what you can say is that this is bit of change in direction for Kim as previously she was a bit pidgeon holed as a country singer, which is not accurate as she is more than that with wide spectrum of material, which I must say is adequately displayed here.

On this album she has co written all of the songs with different people, from Boo Hewerdine, Will Kimbrough, the late Tim Kreckle and Mark Olson (ex Jayhawks and co performer with Gary Louris)

Best tracks for me are "When The Circus Comes To Town" and "In The Years To Come" neither of which are country.

If you are a fan of Kim Richey, this CD is a must have. The songs are all good and the production is top notch.
She has made an amazing record that will stay in your player all day.