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SHeDAISY
Sweet Right Here
label: Hollywood Records
released: 06.08.04
our score: 3.0 out of 5.0
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Pretty,
Funny, But Plent of Disturbing Undercurrents
by: matt cibula |
The
three sisters who make up country vocal trio SHeDAISY always seemed
like they were grown in a lab to provide a nice safe alternative
to the Dixie Chicks. Want three attractive white girls singing
together, except without the instrumental prowess and the outspoken
lefty politics? Try the Osborns!
That,
of course, is massively unfair…kind of. On the one hand,
they’ve been singing together all their lives, and shouldn’t
have to apologize for their audience’s fear of Natalie Maines.
Their voices are pretty enough, they’re telegenic and engaging
enough in their own right, and Kristyn Osborn writes a lot more
of SHeDAISY’s songs than any of the Chicks have ever done
on their own records. So let me retract that opening statement…kind
of.
Because
these are definitely well-done songs. "Passenger Seat,”
the first single, just jumps out from the radio all smiles, a
tale about how cool it can be sitting next to the one you love:
“When I look to the left, see his suntanned hands / His
muddy river hair and his thousand-acre plans / I’m all shook
up like a quarter in a can”. The harmonies are tight and
light and just as nice as they need to be, and it’s all
very adorable.
And
then there’s the album’s centerpiece, the fun romp
“Don’t Worry ‘Bout a Thing,” a hootenanny
wherein our plucky heroines dish the dirt about life: “Ever
sat yourself down when the seat is all wet / Or seen your ex suckin’
face with a little brunette?” They sing about taxes and
Nashville politics and the size of their asses (I’m not
kidding, gotta be the first mention of “junk in the trunk”
in a country song), and they go “blah blah blah blah”
before nailing the chorus—self-deprecation, that underused
rhetorical trope, is on FIRE here.
And
the sad songs are incredibly sad: we have “I should have
known I’d never own / This borrowed home” and “I
happened to you, you happened to me / But now that’s gone”
and “I will live behind closed doors / To keep from hearing
what I already know.” And the love/lust songs sound like
there’s some real passion there, especially “360º
of You,” where they totally perv on some random guy while
checking out his butt. Which is cool.
But
let’s back up to the single. Why does the song need to be
about being in the passenger seat? And why does the next
song, “5, 4, 3, 2, Run,” punish its footloose protagonist
for breaking free of her small little town? What seems at first
like a song celebrating freedom ends up calling its central character
a “truck-stop trollop” and laughing at her for having
to call back home for help. There’s something very mean-spirited
about that.
And
there’s something really creepy about “Good Together
(Bucket and Chicken),” an attempt at a cutesy little love
song but sporting some of the craziest lyrics I’ve heard
this year: “You got the bucket baby / I’ve got the
chicken” is okay, but then “You got the Smith and
Wesson / I got the ammunition”? What’s going on here?
And then “You’re a pesky little fly / I’m the
pink plastic swatter / You’re a back-seat kinda guy / And
I’m the bishop’s daughter”? Okay, that last
one is kinda great, but you see my point.
And
I’m not even gonna touch “A Woman’s Work,”
which may or may not glorify a serial killer because she’s
a Christian woman. Sure, they say she’s a “zealot
Jezebel” and they talk about the voices in her head, but
they also call her “a Saint sent to purify the human condition”—oh,
that’s right, I said I wasn’t gonna touch this one.
Still though.
Overall,
while I think the Osborns are very good singers and that Kristyn
is certainly a very talented writer, this record scares the HELL
out of me. Either you’re a self-deprecating good old girl
sitting in the passenger seat, being the bullets in your boyfriend’s
pistol and dreaming of a wedding ring—or you’re a
Jezebel selling yourself on the side of the road or maybe, just
maybe, going out in a blaze of horrible, perhaps God-sanctioned,
glory. I might listen to this album a few more times, just to
make sure I’m not wrong (and to devour some of those delicious
hooks), but I’m not sure I’ll let my daughter hear
it. I want her to be driving the car; she’s not
gonna be ammunition for someone else’s gun.
14-Jul-2004
11:00 PM
If you
liked Sweet Right Here ...
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Tracklist:
1.
Passenger Seat
2. 5 4 3 2 Run
3. 360º of You
4. Love Goes On
5. I Dare You
6. Good Together (Bucket and Chicken)
7. Come Home Soon
8. Don't Worry 'Bout a Thing
9. Without a Sound
10. Borrowed Home
11. Woman's Work
12. He's a Hero
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