13 Tracks
Serendipity smiled upon me when I happened upon Lily’s latest Tiny Desk entry, “What’s the Big Idea?”. Securing her CD at a house concert in JP two days later, it’s been my commute companion the last two months! Lily is on the folk-edge of Americana, but like most great art, the music goes where it wants, damn your labels. The musicianship is excellent, the singing is beautiful, and the songwriting just sinks me. Perhaps her greatest strength is the community of musicians she’s built around her, as every song seems to have new instruments added to the mix, and Lily and her co-conspirators craft spell-binding songs. Lily is a poet and philosopher, and fortunately for me, at least, music is her medium, as I don’t read much poetry or philosophy these days! Just check out the title track, “It Is Cyclical, Missing You”. Her lyrics cut to the core of longing and love and how relationships and the resulting emotions frame our existence. The drive and pacing of this song, in particular, match the passion and complexity of the message. Check out the first verse of “Wounded Creature, Reaching”: “In the grandeur of this reverie, the failings of my memory / The midnight crawl to kitchen sink, you’re deep inside the mirror / I look over as the night sets in / A catatonic cry for living life like someone handed me the catalog for giving in”. Delightful! The problem is I could quote any line from this song, or any other on the album, but then that starts to feel quite like plagiarism, and it’s time for you to go discover for yourself the sheer joy of one Lily Talmers. You’re welcome. (A.J. Crowe)