Rain Perry "Cinderblock Bookshelves" (Precipitous Records, 2008)

Part one of a 'Multi-media memoir project'

Cinderblock Bookshelves is just one instalment of a 3-part ‘multi-media memoir project’ including a one-woman stage play and a forthcoming book. So, Rain Perry obviously either has an overly healthy sense of self-importance, or feels she has a story worth telling.

With colourful experience on her side, the latter soon proves to be the case, as just two tracks into this album she has already grabbed you. There are the odd moments here that just suck you in and captivate you. “I said goodbye from the hospital doorway…” she begins on the folky title-track as we follow her from the sudden death of her mother to sharply observed travels, trials and tribulations charting adolescence on the road with her free-spirited artist father. It’s an enthralling 5 minutes of autobiography and from then on in Perry’s sharp writing and keen observations to the minutiae of life keeps the attention for the rest of this finely crafted and richly melodious record.

As with a lot of the albums best moments, highlight ‘Girl In The Boys Room’ returns to Rain’s formative years, charting her observations & acceptance into the male-orientated 1970s teenage world of rock n roll pin ups and slavishly learning to play along to Neil Young and Led Zeppelin albums. The boy’s bedrooms where this forbidden art occurs observed as a ‘secret, foreign land’ which she manages to conquer. “They dragged me to some guys house so that I can demonstrate, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or something equally clichéd...I know I’m not that great, but I play pretty good…for a girl” It’s a superbly warm, nostalgic and witty pop song that elevates the album above the average.

On upbeat moments such as ‘Girl in the Boys Room’, ‘Girl On The Side’ & ‘Dear Dana’ there’s definite Aimee Mann comparison to her vocal and melodic rock sensibility. Elsewhere the stripped-down reflective folk and country-inspired moments like ‘Patty’ and ‘Airborne’, with its lighter-in-the-air refrain, offer some of the most moving and melancholic moments.

If the play and book of ‘Cinderblock Bookshelves’ are as crafted, warm and well-written as this album then they too will be well worth investigating

Date review added:  Saturday, July 12, 2008
Reviewer:  Ian Fildes
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  artist website