Articles
Terrence Dixon
Ten Favourite Labels 2012

Albums
1982 + BJ Cole
Oren Ambarchi
Balmorhea
Alexander Berne
Born Gold
Carlyle & Cox
Kate Carr and Gail Priest
Paul Corley
Deison
Roland Etzin
Yuichiro Fujimoto
Glissando
Godspeed You! Bl. Emp.
Ivar Grydeland
Hakimonu
Hammock
Sophie Hutchings
Kane Ikin
Jeanne Jolly
Paul Mac
Michael Mayer
David Michael
Moskus
David Newlyn
No Regular Play
Numina
Oskar Offermann
Olan Mill
Padna
Pelt
Rone
Roomful of Teeth
Bruno Sanfilippo
Valgeir Sigurdsson
The Sleep Of Reason
Jessica Sligter
Slow Dancing Society
Prins Thomas
The Use Of Ashes
Maarten van der Vleuten
Stian Westerhus
Wires Under Tension
Woolfy vs. Projections

Reissue
William Basinski

EPs
Elektro Guzzi
Glacis
Porya Hatami
Maps & Diagrams
Stephan Mathieu
Michael Trommer

Jeanne Jolly: Angels
The Foreign Exchange Music

Not having heard Jeanne Jolly's 2010 EP Falling In Carolina, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from her debut full-length Angels. But I was surprised to discover that the album largely situates her luscious voice within a predominantly country context. Part of the reason for that surprise stems from the fact that I was introduced to Jolly's singing through her vocal contributions to The Foreign Exchange's 2011 collection Dear Friends: An Evening with The Foreign Exchange; in keeping with its acoustic soul sound, I imagined that Jolly's own release might continue on in that vein. Notwithstanding a few exceptions, however, Angels is tailor-made for country radio, a move that will likely please some listeners and disappoint others. Based on the ten-song set produced by Chris Boerner, it would appear that the Raleigh, North Carolina-based singer-songwriter sees herself as a country singer first and foremost.

Ably assisted by Boerner, Jolly embeds her crystal-clear voice within a number of story-driven settings, with the twang of pedal steel guitarist Allyn Love never far behind. Though the songs' arrangements are rich with acoustic guitars, piano, and drums, the album's primary sonic weapon, naturally, is Jolly's songbird voice, whose graceful lilt on “Long Way Home” and impassioned reach on “Round and Round Again” (the latter bolstered by a backing choir) is never less than captivating. Unfortunately, as polished a production as the album is on vocal and instrumental grounds (and it is most definitely that), some material verges on generic, with certain songs sounding like they could just as easily be vehicles for a Carrie Underwood as a Jeanne Jolly (e.g., “Angels on Hayworth St.”). A plunge into a less commercial country style shows up in the cheeky lament “Tear Soup” where a near-yodeling Jolly drowns her sorrows in a wash of steel guitars. Changing things up slightly, “The Hard Way” sees her tackling a raw and bluesy style of the kind one associates with Shelby Lynne, and the Stones-ish guitar chords and guitar solo also help give the song a rougher edge.

November 2012