Martha Wainwright - Come Home To Mama (08/11/2012)
Martha Wainwright has returned with an album of original material, four years after her last, and the American-Canadian singer-songwriter is as quirky and raw as ever.
She explores themes of loss, motherhood, and tricky love on Come Home To Mama, in an exploratory and introspective work.
If you are unfamiliar with this prolific family, Martha is the lesser known sibling of Rufus – the man who bravely covered the Leonard Cohen classic immortalised by the late, great Jeff Buckley (yes, I'm talking about Hallelujah). Songwriting is in their blood, as both parents were folk musicians before them.
Prosperina is a broody, operatic number that is perhaps the stormiest moment on this album – from ominous violin and heavy piano to broken wails that are spine-tingling in their sincerity. This song was written by the artist's mother Kate McGarrigle, shortly before she died of cancer.
While Radio Star can be skipped without missing much, opening track I Am Sorry is punchy and unforgiving about “the seven year itch”, so warrants a listen. Wainwright is unyielding in her prose, and she certainly can't be accused of playing into the hands of convention.
The Come Home To Mama LP is a sweeping statement. It's an ambitious opus, penned by a married woman, who is experiencing the joy of being a new mother, while simultaneously suffering the death of her own.
All Your Clothes is a one-sided heart-to-heart and the most obvious tribute to her late Mother. Wainwright attempts to justify her life and choices, in the way we sometimes do for our parents, while also searching for what's left of her Mother's ghost, as if the memories are fading.
Martha Wainwright's voice is nothing if not unique. From haunting to grating, the off notes serve to make the true notes sweeter.
The best song is the final cut, Everything Wrong. By this point, Wainwright has stopped trying so hard to be, to prove, to forgive, or to explain. She imparts the hard-earned wisdom of a parent, for a brand new baby. This mother implores her child to be smarter than she, to take flight when things fall apart, and she promises she won't cry too much while observing.
Rebecca McCann
She explores themes of loss, motherhood, and tricky love on Come Home To Mama, in an exploratory and introspective work.
If you are unfamiliar with this prolific family, Martha is the lesser known sibling of Rufus – the man who bravely covered the Leonard Cohen classic immortalised by the late, great Jeff Buckley (yes, I'm talking about Hallelujah). Songwriting is in their blood, as both parents were folk musicians before them.
Prosperina is a broody, operatic number that is perhaps the stormiest moment on this album – from ominous violin and heavy piano to broken wails that are spine-tingling in their sincerity. This song was written by the artist's mother Kate McGarrigle, shortly before she died of cancer.
While Radio Star can be skipped without missing much, opening track I Am Sorry is punchy and unforgiving about “the seven year itch”, so warrants a listen. Wainwright is unyielding in her prose, and she certainly can't be accused of playing into the hands of convention.
The Come Home To Mama LP is a sweeping statement. It's an ambitious opus, penned by a married woman, who is experiencing the joy of being a new mother, while simultaneously suffering the death of her own.
All Your Clothes is a one-sided heart-to-heart and the most obvious tribute to her late Mother. Wainwright attempts to justify her life and choices, in the way we sometimes do for our parents, while also searching for what's left of her Mother's ghost, as if the memories are fading.
Martha Wainwright's voice is nothing if not unique. From haunting to grating, the off notes serve to make the true notes sweeter.
The best song is the final cut, Everything Wrong. By this point, Wainwright has stopped trying so hard to be, to prove, to forgive, or to explain. She imparts the hard-earned wisdom of a parent, for a brand new baby. This mother implores her child to be smarter than she, to take flight when things fall apart, and she promises she won't cry too much while observing.
Rebecca McCann