The first time I ever heard Katy Moffatt was on her last disc
\nAngel Town<\/i>, a scaled-down production that showcased one of
\nthe genre’s most underrated performers. In an era where Shania
\nTwain is revered and Garth Brooks is treated like the God of the
\nmoment, Moffatt’s vocals and the stripped-down sound the disc had
\nshowed just how powerful country-folk could be. It was a wonderful
\nrevelation.<\/p>\n
One album later, Moffatt returns with a full-band sound – and it
\nunfortunately takes away from her legacy.
\nLoose Diamond<\/i> still highlights Moffatt as a star who is
\nburning bright while some people have chosen not to look at it, but
\nit’s nowhere near the kind of album that
\nAngel Town<\/i> was… a pity.<\/p>\n
At least early on, the focus of the disc is more on the country
\naspect of the music than anything else; tracks like “I Walk Along”
\nand “Here We Go” are examples of this new approach. Unfortunately,
\nthey’re not as accessible, though I guess someone who was more into
\ncountry music would appreciate these tracks more than I did. But
\nit’s disappointing that the folk aspect of the music is put on the
\nshelf – at least for a while.<\/p>\n
\nLoose Diamond<\/i> rediscovers the storytelling aspect that made
\nAngel Town<\/i> such a wonderful album on songs like “Waitin’ For
\nThe Sun To Shine,” “The Cuckoo” (featuring producer Dave Alvin in a
\nduet with Moffatt) and the title track. The problem is that it
\nfeels like including these songs is just a symbolic tip of the hat
\nto the old magic – even so, I’ll gladly take more tracks like
\nthese, thank you very much.<\/p>\n
While the bulk of
\nLoose Diamond<\/i> is still an enjoyable album, the magic just
\ndoesn’t shine as brightly as before. Songs like “Burning Memories,”
\n“Whiskey Money & Time”, “Stoned At The Jukebox” and “So Long
\nBaby Goodbye” just don’t connect in a way I would have expected.
\nThen again, where I once said that
\nAngel Town<\/i> was an album I had to listen to two or three
\ntimes to really appreciate, maybe
\nLoose Diamond<\/i> just requires a little more time and
\nattention.<\/p>\n
It’s not that Moffatt should never have examined her country
\nside; she’s never been afraid to admit in her music that country is
\na major force in her work. But it seemed like she was able to
\nstrike a balance between country and folk previously; maybe this
\ntime around, she wanted to put a little more emphasis on her roots
\nand a little less on the folk aspect.<\/p>\n
\nLoose Diamond<\/i> is still an album that you’ll be able to
\nappreciate – but it’s not quite equal to the crown jewel in her
\ndiscography. Compared to
\nAngel Town<\/i>, this disc just doesn’t have the same kind of
\nsparkle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6087],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36371","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-katy-moffatt","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36371"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36371"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}