Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers

I've got a big thing for Kathleen Edwards. Her last album, Back to Me,is one of my favorite albums of the decade, one that I still listen to as much today as I did when it came out three years ago. She is a songwriter of rare quality. It's not an overstatement to say that her songs can hold their own against the best of Neil Young and Ryan Adams.

Needless to say, I was delightfully surprised last week when I discovered that one day earlier her follow-up, Asking for Flowers, was out. While it doesn't quite reach the heights of Back to Me, it's a solid effort. The first song, "Buffalo," is as good as anything she's ever written. It's a gradually building study of seasonal romance, and it's marvelous. Her voice sends me over the moon. She's seriously got one of the best voices around.

Nothing else on the album quite reaches those heights, but there are some really solid tracks. "Alicia Ross" is a devastating story about a woman telling her mother about the man who killed her, and "Oil Man's War" is a roaring indictment of ... well, you know. All in all it's a good listen, and it shows that she's not just a flash in the pan.

ALSO, if you haven't already checked out the Amplive remixes of In Rainbows, get your ass over there and check that mess out. You won't be sorry you did.

ALSO x 2, I would like to retract my prediction that Juno would annoy me. It rocks.