Lillie Mae – Other Girls (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:37 minutes | 481 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Third Man Records
Produced by Dave Cobb, Other Girls is Mae’s second solo album. Her 2017 debut, Forever and then Some, was produced by Jack White, who Mae has been collaborating and performing with on and off since 2012. “It’s a little less folky,” Mae says of Other Girls. “I’ve been writing with more structure. It’s just time and influence, I reckon.” Mae spent the last year immersed in Nashville’s RCA Studio A, recording and taking a rare break from her intense touring schedule. “This has been the slowest year of my life,” she tells Rolling Stone. “I’ve played less than ever in history. It’s been really awesome to stretch that creative side and not just be hustling from gig to gig.”
Collaborating with producer Dave Cobb helps Lillie Mae simultaneously sharpen and expand her focus — a nifty, subtle trick that fuels Other Girls, her second album for Third Man Records. Lillie Mae operates in an undefined territory where ancient and modern music meet, a place where bluegrass can seem spacy but not quite lonesome. This is a distinct, delicate balance, one she hinted at on Forever and Then Some, but Other Girls benefits from Cobb adding a sense of spectral melancholy to the proceedings. It’s a quality that’s thankfully not overplayed; it’s there just enough to add dimension and mystery, emotions that still linger when the record turns and eases into something a little simpler. Lillie Mae’s high, keening voice is suited for such stylized plaints but the reason Other Girls works as well as it does is that it’s not solely sad. The record is filled with flinty defiance and sly humor, and it’s all unified by a fearless sense of adventure. Because the record ends with the dark, swirling mini-suite “Love Dilly Love,” the fearlessness leaves a lasting impression, but it doesn’t overshadow “Crisp and Cold,” “You’ve Got Other Girls for That,” and “Terlingua Girl,” songs where Lillie Mae sings with tenderness and steel; songs that manage to turn old traditions into something surprising and new. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracklist:
01. You’ve Got Other Girls for That
02. Crisp & Cold
03. I Came for the Band (For Show)
04. Whole Blue Heart
05. How?
06. A Golden Year
07. At Least Three in This Room
08. Some Gamble
09. Didn’t I
08. Terlingua Girl
11. Love Dilly Love
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