Let there be Luce

Saturday, August 18, 2007 

"October" Rating 4 [out of 5]

Meredith Luce (Independent)

Ottawa's Meredith Luce has, over the past couple of years, inspired considerable buzz. Her first full-length album proves the buzzers right. A bracing mix of folk, alt-country and pop (the continual surprises in sequencing are just one of the album's delights), it burrows into subjects ranging from love to songwriting. Luce's willingness to take musical risks, along with a keen sense of musical drama and sheer enthusiasm, underpin the whole business.

Ballad of Sally Rae is one of the standout tracks. It chronicles the story of a West Virginia girl who, in the late 1960s, heads to Canada with her draft-dodging partner (the song's partly a tribute to Luce's American-born parents, especially her mother, who did come north during the Vietnam War). Wisely, Luce avoids trying to sound like an Appalachian woman, sticking with what she knows vocally while letting the familiar image of worked-out coalmines stand as a powerful metaphor for America's ravenous imperialism and empty soul.

Tess, inspired by Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, gives us a touching portrait of a heroine who's the victim of both others' failings and her own fears and selfless nature. Driven by distorted electric guitar, the track reminds us how little human nature changes over the centuries.

Black Cats, meanwhile, is a breathless murder ballad inspired by an Oscar Wilde short story. Ottawa's Dave Draves, who produced and recorded the album at his Little Bullhorn Studios, plays an Optigan (you'll have to Google to get the backstory on this novelty keyboard) in player piano style, giving the dark tale an idiosyncratic vaudevillian twist.

And while Luce's vocals are sometimes too far back in the mix to be understood, there's plenty more to enjoy here, including the wistful Sing Me Back Home. Remember, too, that Luce is not yet 19. That means the best is yet to come.

Meredith Luce plays the Bowie Electrical stage at 9:45 tonight.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2007