Crows

Crows is Allison Moorer's latest recording of original songs following her cover album Mockingbird (see my review). This is a collection of dark, brooding folk tunes featuring Moorer's gorgeous voice. The opener "Abalone Sky" is fairly sparse featuring acoustic guitar to accompany Moorer's lament for something/someone that troubles her. This song is beauty in sadness. "Goodbye To The Ground" follows nicely adding some additional instrumentation while keeping the same mood. Moorer gives listeners an interesting variation on "Broken Girl" as the instrumentation lightens up a bit, but her voice is still haunting as she tells "Storms gather in her head sometimes". Her delivery on the bridge of the song is earnest and gives intensity to the song that sticks with you.

However Moorer stumbles at times with her songwriting on Crows. The chorus on "Just Another Fool" is trite and sophomoric "Ooh she ain't gonna let you in fool/she ain't ever gonna break her rule/and if you...Read more

I've been a fan of hers for years and loved her last disc, Mockingbird. But Crows is on an entirely different level. It leans so heavy on melody and strings allowing her voice to really shine and she gives you everything she has on these haunting songs. "Still This Side of Gone," is just melancholic beauty. The entire disc has this almost eerily atmospheric intimacy to it. The title track, "Crows," has a simple piano riff that underplays the lyrics brilliantly . And "Easy in the Summertime," follows in the same aforementioned formula. These songs, sort of like the rest of the disc, wrestle with inner turmoils of heartbreak/nature, but everything about this disc is just so polished and heartfelt that it avoids schlock. Moorer's voice has always been a thing of blues inflected beauty and with this disc's three upbeat tunes, it manages to have a hopeful poignancy to even the darkest of material on this disc. Wonderful album that matches the greatness of The Duel and The Hardest Part.

I'm giving this 2 stars, not because I like it that much but because Allison's voice is too beautiful to record a 1 star album. I've been a fan of Allison Moorer since she recorded Alabama Song. I thought The Hardest Part was one of the best country albums made. I saw Allison live in Philly just after she released Miss Fortune and she was great. In Getting Somewhere we saw some departure from the country formula that made her a success. All artists tend to spread their wings a little. So it was no surprise that the next two CDs were named after birds. Mockingbird took Allison even farther from her country roots but in Crows we find an artist crossing over way too far from country to more standard "run of the mill" folk and pop. While her sister has pulled a nice switch by flavoring her country twang with some heart felt blues, or paying tribute to some great singer song writers who made some great song, these songs simply lack character. Whereas I once walked around singing...Read more