No Dental Plan
If you haven’t heard of Kelli Scarr, you’ve undoubtedly heard her sing on Moby’s Wait for Me. Not a Moby fan? Maybe you heard Scarr on NPR, where her first album, Piece, was available for stream and highly publicized in 2010, or the contest winning single Scarr AND Moby produced in less than 48 hours for NPR’s “Project Song” titled “Gone to Sleep.” Surely, you’ve heard her Emmy nominated score for the HBO documentary, “In a Dream”? Now that she isn’t sharing the spotlight with anyone, Scarr’s recently released second album, Dangling Teeth, focuses on her and her adventures in heartbreak.
The 10 track record is full of beautifully crafted original numbers from Scarr, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that it exudes originality. The title track is a slow and mopey country ballad featuring little more than a couple of guitars, snares, a touch of piano and organ, as well as the center piece, Scarr’s emotion-invoking vocals. The meandering acoustics float around charmingly during short country and blues influenced solos, but the engine under the hood is Scarr herself. Showcasing her range as a singer, Scarr conveys the lonesome cowgirl heartbreak we didn’t know she had inside of her. If only the instrumentation matched the singer’s passion.
Dangling Teeth is something pure and simple. The songs are not by any means elaborate of overly dressed up, put there is a certain charming innocence to it. Even longtime fans should give this album a listen before you pick it up. Just be careful while listening to Dangling Teeth on the road that you don’t fall asleep!
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