It has been said that folk singers are like pieces of oatmeal,
\none as non-descript as the next. Whoever said this probably has not
\nheard the work of folk singer Dar Williams. Not only does Williams
\nhave a distinctive style of songwriting, but she has ambitious
\nideas. For example, the theme of her latest CD,
\nThe Green World<\/i>, is the state of the world, the world’s
\nrelationship with God, and her relationship with the world. These
\nare pretty lofty ideas and if
\nThe Green World<\/i> occasionally falls short of its grandiose
\npurposes, there are definitely some fascinating moments here.<\/p>\n
What will probably be the most talked about song on this
\ncollection is “I Won’t Be Your Yoko Ono”. This cute tune basically
\nis a response to the Barenaked Ladies song “Be My Yoko Ono”, and
\nthe premise is that Yoko was the real talent and not John Lennon.
\nAs a big Beatles fan, this is a bit hard for me to take, but on the
\nother hand, it’s hard to resist lines like “You don’t know a person
\nlike me\/I could sell your songs to Nike\/And for all you know I
\ncould save your soul”. The bottom line is there is enough heart
\nhere to elevate the song beyond novelty.<\/p>\n
“What Do You Love More Than Love?” is another clever pop song in
\nthe same vein. This tuneful number has equal parts of sarcasm and
\nsoul.<\/p>\n
However, the bulk of
\nThe Green World<\/i> is very serious. The opening song “Playing
\nTo The Firmament” is a nice introduction as it poses questions
\nabout how the world got into the state it is, leaving the rest of
\nthe CD for some answers. The next song “And A God Descended” does
\nanswer back with a tale of disillusionment of religion.<\/p>\n
Some of Williams’ fans have complained that what is missing on
\nthis CD is some of her more personal statements and the intimacy of
\nhearing just her and a guitar. Well,
\nThe Green World<\/i> is very much a band effort. Every song has a
\nguitar, bass, some sort of percussion, and usually some keyboards
\nand the occasional cello. I agree it would have been nice if
\nWilliams could have fit in one solo song, but the band does do a
\ngood job of capturing the mood of each song just right.<\/p>\n
As for personal songs, while the emphasis is on general
\ncommentary, songs like “After All”, “Spring Street” and “We Learned
\nThe Sea” do add a more personal perspective to the theme with the
\nsame poignancy that has been the strength of her previous work,
\nalthough none of them reach the level of “When I Was A Boy” from
\nher first CD.<\/p>\n
\nThe Green World<\/i> does seem to run out of steam toward the
\nend. “I Had No Right” is the most overtly political song and I just
\ndon’t think this type of protest song is really her strong suit.
\nAlso “It Happens Every Day” doesn’t add any particularly
\ninteresting insights about the condition of life. But the CD ends
\non a positive note with the winsome “Another Mystery” which shows
\nWilliams entering the alt-country terrain with surprising
\neffectiveness. Overall, this is another satisfying CD from one of
\nfolk music’s rising stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":25682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6485],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36888","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dar-williams","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36888","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36888"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36888"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}