Some things sound better in retrospective. For instance, if everyone who owns a Ramones t-shirt today had actually bought a Ramones record back in the day, they’d make Taylor Swift’s music sales seem like pocket change. I have to profess that perspective on countrypolitan music. As a typical, limited viewpoint teenager growing up in rural Missouri, I couldn’t stand all those strings and highly polished productions that were the radio fodder of the day. I have a better appreciation for that twang-alternative sound nowadays, and the new album from Caitlin Cannon is a full windup, slap-in-the-face reminder of that. Entitled Love Addict, it’s a glorious combination of Cannon’s direct, sometimes snarky, lyrics set to a lush soundtrack blending old and new.
The title track opens the CD with an unapologetic take on what Cannon sometimes looks for in a man. It has a little psychedelia to the folk/pop sound, perfectly in line with the addictiveness of pleasurable things. That dreamy haze makes another appearance on The Impact, with its twisted metaphor of life being like you’re in free fall, just waiting to hit the ground. At the other end of the realism spectrum is Dr. Dealer. Horns are front-and-center in the upbeat Memphis blues commentary on legal scripts versus what you get on a street corner. Jesus Is My Lover has a spaghetti western tinge of horns as it notes “they don’t come like this on Tinder.”
Now let’s talk about some of those countrypolitan cuts. I Wouldn’t Say I Love You is a tender look at a fear of intimacy, where “once the word is said, it’s the beginning of the end.” A lot less tender is You’re Losing Me, where the cluelessness of her boyfriend is about to go on display. My Own Company details the struggles one has with one’s self where “lately it’s hard to keep my own company.” Let It Hurt Some took me back to the days of my parents watching country music on the Lawrence Welk Show, with the pedal steel brazenly staggering through the satin-gloved string section.
The record finishes with Waiting. Unlike the rest of the album, it’s just a girl and her guitar. It was inspired by the 35-years-and-counting incarceration of Cannon’s brother. The song made an appearance on an earlier release, with full band treatment. But this version…wow…all I can say is I pity the poor musician who ever has to follow her and this song in a songwriter’s circle. It puts a poignant exclamation point on the 9 cuts before it, and whether you’re a fan of the strings or the lyrics or both, Caitlin Cannon’s Love Addict should be on your short list this year.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.