Starting from the atypically playful cover photo of
Dar Williams
sticking out her tongue, stained from the blue jawbreaker in her hand,
My Better Self
is clearly a big departure for the New England folkie. In contrast to both her sparse early records and her more recent albums that had hesitantly worked a wider range of musicians into her guitar-and-vocal tunes,
kicks off with the self-confident AAA
folk-rock
jangle of the sardonic
"Teen for God,"
a rueful but affectionate memory of earnest adolescent moralizing set to a jaunty
pop
tune. This is in no way a sell-out attempt to appeal to a wider
audience, but an opening up of
Williams
' music to incorporate unexpected but entirely appropriate new musical and emotional shadings.
steps up to the challenge with some of her finest material, including the instant classic
"Beautiful Enemy."
Quite possibly the finest song
has yet recorded,
"Beautiful Enemy"
matches a sharp lyric (including possibly the first chorus to turn the word "hegemony" into a vocal hook) to a terrific '60s
melody that's given a strong
-rocking arrangement powered by a killer organ part; for the first time,
sounds more like
Aimee Mann
than
Shawn Colvin
, and it's an exciting transformation. The '70s California
rock
touches on the illegitimacy
ballad
"Liar"
send what might have been just another acoustic
folk
tune into a direction closer to a vintage
Fleetwood Mac
or
Carly Simon
single, and all the better for it. Even the nervy cover choices,
Neil Young
's
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
and
Pink Floyd
"Comfortably Numb"
(released shortly after
the Scissor Sisters
' glammy reinterpretation of same), come off well in the context of
' introspective originals.
Stewart Lerman
's production and arrangements bring in guests like
Marshall Crenshaw
,
Ani DiFranco
, and the guys from
the Hooters
(
Rob Hyman
co-wrote two songs, in fact), but this remains
' album throughout, and it's the best of her career. Her better self indeed. ~ Stewart Mason