Clea Roddick “Songs of the Year: Vol. 1”
Dear Nashville, I am singer/songwriter from Calgary…
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Roddick is like a huge country-pop stealth bomb - her biography and everything about this EP suggest something more lo-fi something like early Cat Power or Rosie Thomas. However, the songs burst in your ears like an improvised musical device designed to cause maximum success.
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This is supposed to be the first of a series of EP’s reflecting the seasons, and this one purports to capture winter - only ‘I Will Come Back’ mentions anything to do with the most frigid time of the year, it starts frostily and lights a fire, then throws on a pile of kindling, then logs until it crackles with warmth. The EP opens with the best song ‘Astronomy,’ the piano tinkling like a faulty neon sign, a whole galaxy of instruments are put to use, and her voice is at its most honest and open - it stays just the right side of everything and promises much. The same can’t be said of ‘Sun Dog’ - here her vocal starts to go all pop idol on us; she seems to be aiming for Kelly Clarkson and just misses the bull’s-eye. She doesn’t seem to be able to help herself; there is something in there worthy of attention. It’s just obscured on this postcard to the big time.
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