And the birds they sing & they sing & they sing
Martha Wainwright
Martha Wainwright (Zoë)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in the Baltimore City Paper, May 11, 2005

Martha Wainwright has released three EPs over the last eight years, but she clearly knows that her first full-length album is what will cement her persona in the public eye, and she wastes no time getting right down to it: the first ten seconds of the opening “Far Away” feature nothing but her tremulous voice, which combines the delicacy of Tanya Donelly, the phrasing of Kim Carnes and the world-weariness of Marianne Faithfull. By the end of the track, Wainwright has used the repetition found in the lines “And the birds they sing & they sing & they sing / And the dogs they bark & they bark & they bark & they bark” to lose herself in the delirium of her own song.

And with that, Martha Wainwright renders the singer’s family tree irrelevant (yes, that Wainwright… that one, too). There’s nothing tentative about the album; there may be missteps – the ill-fitting art-rock sweep and lyrical venom of “Ball & Chain,” the mundane Oprah references in “TV Show” – but they arise out of boldness, not uncertainty. Wainwright hits her mark more often than not, and her brooding, Daniel Lanois-style production provides a perfect backdrop for songs ranging from the folky pop of “Factory” and “When The Day Is Short” to the stripped-bare century-old Vaughan Williams/Robert Louis Stevenson hymn “Whither Must I Wander” to the gorgeous, melancholy “Don’t Forget.” “Fall it cools, winter it snows / Spring it rains, summer comes / And you go,” she sings, and her voice matches the words hurt for hurt.


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