Charlotte Kendrick "I Get Stupid" (Sonablast 2006)

Refreshing and strangely engaging collection from yet another folky singer-songstress

Between the blazing stars of such exceptional talents like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez are myriad constellations dotted with the likes of Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman along with shooting stars like Tanita Tikaram and pin pricks of light like Jenny Lewis and Mary Lou Lord but, wow, what a dizzying galaxy of lesser constellations remain. Precious little distinguishes the legions of folky female songwriters singing their egocentric ramblings from the dim stages of coffee-houses across the world. A few chords and a tear-stained diary just doesn’t cut it anymore. (For the record, the same could be said about the male equivalent: all those narcissistic James Taylor-types with faux Dylan accents. Enough already!)

On the face of it, Charlotte Kendrick appears to be yet another anonymous voice strumming her pleasant but forgettable poetry to no one in particular. Naggingly, though, her songs actually demand repeated listenings and are, in fact, far superior to what one has come to expect from this vastly over-subscribed genre. Sounding somewhere between Suzanne Vega and Mary Chapin Carpenter, it’s not so much what Kendrick says but how she says it. Her lyrics (and her chord changes) are matter-of-fact and unremarkable but her quality of presentation and something unmistakably intimate and genuine in her delivery make this album a curiously attractive, lovingly polished little jewel. Title track, the spare and skeletal ‘I Get Stupid’, is a sublime reflection on how weak we are as adults, especially in the face of love. ‘Looking Out For You’ , an achingly genuine one-way conversation between a yearning heart and a suffering friend, again, brims with truth in an understated, unshowy sort of way. The lonesome piano and cello ballad, ‘Marlboro Reds’, sounds familiar as though we’ve heard it all before but, as with the rest of the album, Kendrick’s delivery is so pure and unaffected that, through sheer sincerity, she might just penetrate the most jaded and cynical heart.

Date review added:  Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Reviewer:  Robin Cracknell
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  artist's website