Sixpence None the Richer

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Sixpence None the Richer

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You must buy this album, because it is damn worth it. I bought it only having listened to "Kiss Me" before. I put it in my CD player, and it still is in my CD player. It starts off with a continuous three-piece song, beautifully linked together in the most ingenious way. It goes deep into your thoughts, making you think about past experiences - before "I Can't Catch You", I had already thought about my ex-girlfriend, my family, my college life, my future, my... To me, "I Can't Catch You" is definitely the standout track on this album. Equal to this is "Sister, Mother", where Leigh Nash's voice really develops to unbelievable heights. This is an album to think about if you're ready to think about the past, the present, the future. If you like songs with a deep meaning, then this is the album for you...

If you're looking at this in hopes of finding 12 immediately catchy tunes like "Kiss Me", forget it...this is an album full of delicately textured modest somewhat folkish alterna-rock whose charms aren't immediately apparent. If you're willing to spend some time with Leigh Nash's childlike soprano and Matt Slocum's soundscapes though, it could be YOU that comes out the richer for it.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Besides the effervescent "Kiss Me", the brisk "I Can't Catch You" shows a man (Slocum does the writing primarily that Nash sings) who's struggling to discard past mistakes and really embrace intimacy with a new love, "Anything" is a bitter tirade about the music industry ("We're all told to dance, but we never picked the tune/Hanging like puppets, they feed us from bent steel spoons/But we're sealing our lips for the someday when the needle and the vinyl play all the songs of the pain/songs that explain all our circles and strains"), "The Waiting Room" is a look at the vagaries of existence in a world that's far from ideal ("Fight til' your fists bleed,baby/Beat the fate walls enclosing you/maybe God will unlock the cage of learning for you"). "Lines of my Earth" complains of a loss of creativity ("This is the last song that I write/until you tell me otherwise/and it's because I just don't feel it anymore") "Love", relegated to the B-side of the "Kiss Me" single when it was available, has perhaps the most intriguing imagery to describe spiritual reawakening, comparing the process to a "Harvester" who cuts open your skin to "plant a new beginning". Truly beautiful (and the only Christian radio hit here at #16). SOME versions (it was re-issued with the song added after the first several runs of CDs) also contain a lovely version of 90s alterna-hit "There She Goes" (first done by the Las in a fairly similar rendition)

LOWS:

"Puedo Escribir" is obviously a stab at experimentalism and musically it's excellent. But for me, the Neruda poem set to music here seems a bit too pretentious. Reading it (in English) over a small "bridge" section as an intro to "I Can't Catch You" would have been plenty. In "We Have Forgotten", Leigh Nash sings a duet with herself and each voice has a different lyric. Having two voices of the exact same timbre and quality singing two different verses simultaneously makes it difficult to make out the words. Having Matt Slocum take the counterpoint probably would have alleviated that problem. "I Won't Stay Long"'s portrait of depression is a bit trite.

BOTTOM LINE:

This is NOT sunny pop..."Kiss Me" is an anomaly. But give this some time in your changer and it will begin to sink in. The best songs on here are NOT the radio fodder.

3 1/2 stars