KELLY HOGAN
I LIKE TO KEEP MYSELF IN PAIN
ANTI
[three and a half stars]
The song is my boss, Atlanta singer
Kelly Hogan has said, referencing not only this new record but her
artistic ethos in general. For if there’s one artist who’s really
able to do a song justice, it’s Hogan, as she’s proven time and again. On just
her third studio solo album in a career spanning close to
two decades, the idea is no different. Yet with the exception
of ‘Golden’ – a note to her close friend, singer-songwriter Neko Case
– all the songs have come from other sources, including Andrew
Bird, M. Ward, the Magnetic Fields and Vic Chesnutt. But this isn’t merely
a covers record. The key lies in how Hogan makes these songs
entirely her own. Whether building to a pop-laced crescendo or keeping to
the country lilt where she really shines, Hogan (with backing from
Booker T and Gabriel Roth of the Dap-Kings, among others) brings to
the songs decades of pain, love, lust and loss. It’s yet another
triumph for this criminally underrated vocalist.
Samuel J. Fell
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