Nicki Bluhm’s second solo album, 2018’s ‘To Rise You Gotta Fall’ marked her best work yet. It’s not a coincidence that the songwriting was driven by especially turbulent circumstances, namely, a divorce and moving from California to Nashville to start a solo career. In the 4 years between ‘To Rise You Gotta Fall’ and her new album ‘Avondale Drive’ Bluhm hasn’t gone through any similarly harrowing experiences. Artists don’t necessarily need traumatic stimulus to create great art, but it does help, and while ‘Avondale Drive’ isn’t by any means a weak album, it lacks some of the emotional fire and bite of the previous record, and is a bit less compelling.
Bluhm’s voice is still in fine form: she’s a blue-eyed soul singer, doing country rock with very little twang. Her accent is pure California, and not the Sam Elliott kind that sounds like a perfectly plausible cowboy. Credit to Bluhm for just using what she has and not trying to put on a twang to do country-rock, because what she has works damn well. The problem with fake twangs isn’t they aren’t authentic, but that they always sound terrible.
While this might be a modern country-rock album, there’s definitely a lot of funk and southern soul here, like the track ‘Feel’ against fuzzed-out guitars, Bluhm sounds like a latter-day California version of Janis Joplin. It’ll make ya boogie, you might just get up and dance. ‘Learn To Love Myself’, the first track on the album, is lyrically less compelling and more laidback, but it has a bassline that Stax would not have been embarrassed to record.Â
In addition to lacking some punch in the writing, the album can. at times, sound a bit overproduced, which, for a genre like Americana — which this album identifies itself as — register as a real issue. The second track ‘Love To Spare’ (cowritten with A. J. Croce) sounds overly layered and, frankly, a bit saccharine. It’s overdone.
While there are issues with the way ‘Avondale Drive’ was produced, there are no quibbles to be had with the playing on the album. Some of the instrumental work is quite exceptional. Oliver Wood (The Wood Brothers) on guitar and Jay Bellerose (who has played with too many people to list, and if you don’t know who he is, honestly just go to Wikipedia now, because you need to understand in a way that I cannot convey here) on percussion stand out.
‘Avondale Drive’ comes out as a mixed bag as an album. It has some very good tracks, like ‘Feel’ but some low points, too. The writing isn’t as strong as Bluhm has proven she’s capable of at other points in her career. As a singer, she continues to stun, dazzle, shine, and impress, and some great work on instruments and on vocals (Oliver Wood sings on the album, too, as does Erin Rae) raise the level of the album considerably. ‘Avondale Drive’ is an enjoyable album, and certainly worth a listen, but Bluhm has done and will do stronger work.
Track list: 1.Learn to Love Myself 2. Love to Spare 3. Feel 4. Sweet Surrender 5. Juniper Woodsmoke 6. Friends (How to do it) 7. Mother’s Daughter 8. Fool’s Gold 9. Leaving Me (Is the Loving Thing to Do) 10. Wheels Rolling Record Label: Compass Records Release date: Friday June 3rd Buy ‘Avondale Drive’ now
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