Legal Commentary

Kathleen Edwards is a singer-songwriter who writes in something of an alt-country vein.  Her debut, Failer, was tremendous.  She has just released her third album, Asking for Flowers, after a hiatus of a few years.

I'm not sure whether to say of Edwards that she is as good as her best work, or as disappointing as her most blah work.  Failer had very few duds; I'm not sure I can say the same thing about her second album, Back to Me, or the new one.  She is better, in my view, at quiet and slow songs that build beautifully in richness and emotion than she is at straight-ahead rockers; or maybe those songs just interest me less.  The new album contains a couple of political songs, and I am no more interested in her politics than I am in the politics of most singer-songwriters, who can acknowledge the ambiguities of an age-old topic like love but are reduced to hectoring when it comes to war. 

Still, her best work is very fine indeed.  Although I recommend the whole album -- and am old enough to belive for the most part in buying a whole album rather than just the choice cuts -- Itunes types shoud certainly invest in the grand opening song, Buffalo, the song Scared at Night, and especially Alicia Ross.