erasing clouds
 

Utah Carol, Rodeo Queen

reviewed by dave heaton

As depicted in the album art, the rodeo girl of the title is nearly invisible, a sketch of a figure amidst the more tangible real world. Maybe she's like the elusive cowgirl in the sand the duo sings about in the song "The Golden West": "she sparkled / she danced in the sand / I fell apart / she slipped through my hands." Or like Utah Carol's music itself. Within it there's Old West ballads and folk songs about lovers leaving ("they all go away / they all just go away"). But they sing and play these songs like they're wisps of air, pieces of a dream.

Grant Birkenbeul and JiJa Davis sing together quietly, sweetly, in voices that resemble ghosts: forming but not quite forming. They and their friends play guitar, banjo and drums, but also there's bountiful keyboards, and some horns. And all the instruments together make the music feel lush, like the most extravagant, labored-over soft-pop, but also light, floating before your ears.

This style makes the music purty but also somehow accentuates the feelings of the songs. The songs are often about lovers leaving, and it sounds like they're evaporating. The songs are about deep loneliness, about feeling like you're half a person, and the invisible music brings to mind the visual manifestation of that. They're about reassuring someone that things will get better, and they sound like the sweetest, warmest bedtime lullaby, calming all your fears as you slip away to sleep.

{www.utahcarol.com}


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