The Musical Divide

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of the title, but Willow Avalon’s debut album is a consistent, highly enjoyable listen that’s as frequently smart as it is, well, smart-ass. For context, Avalon is a Georgia native and daughter of fellow singer/songwriter Jim White, with this album acting as her proper musical introduction to the world following an EP last year.

And I’ll say this, when you start your album with a song that contains the opening line: “I love you like sugar / You love me sex / Put us both together we’ll do something we regret,” you’ve certainly got my attention. Granted, it also helps that this album opens with a lot of drive, muscle, and groove and is pretty front-loaded with some of its best moments – she somehow makes a sqounky guitar tone on “Homewrecker” sound like a blaring trumpet and it’s kind of cool. It’s tough to describe the exact sonic formula: sort of a vintage-inspired blend of country and folk with a slight Appalachian bent in some of the instrumentation and tone, with a lot of smoked-out keys, pedal steel and guitars giving way to a lot of gentle but no less galloping grooves. This is just one of those albums where the production is supple and lends itself to a lot of fantastic grooves and sweetly melodic hooks, my favorites of the bunch probably being “Damned,” “Tequila or Whiskey,” and “Baby Blue” purely in that regard.

All the better, too, for Avalon as a singer, who – no pun intended – has a sort of willowy, ghostly flair to her delivery to compliment the slightly more vintage tones. The Lindi Ortega comparisons are damn-near inescapable, albeit less dark and theatrical and more straightforward on an album that splits its focus between a lot of well-written relationship songs and more family-oriented ones. The latter certainly brings out the more charming side of this album: One of my favorite details in “Gettin’ Rich, Goin’ Broke” is how if she ever does make it in this industry, she’s going to focus on buying her family members every essential (and inessential) item they need or desire. And despite “Hey There, Dolly” feeling kind of corny on paper as an homage to the titular singer, there’s enough awkward charm and frankly hilarious one-liners present, where even though I wouldn’t call it a personal favorite of mine on the album, I would call it a gutsy move that works.

For me, however, the album hits its sweet spot with a lot of sad but driving songs about relationships, where Avalon’s keen eye for detail never always places her in the right. On tracks like “Baby Blue” and “Damned,” she’s empathetic to what her own leaving will or has already done to former partners, even if that feeling isn’t reciprocated when she finds herself on the other side of that, on tracks like “Want Me Now,” “The Actor,” and “Good Morning, Goodbye.” Where the album stumbles for me is on a few of its more gimmicky cuts. Aforementioned tracks like “Gettin’ Rich, Goin’ Broke” and “Hey There, Dolly” have elements that work better in their favor in this lane, but “Yodelayheewho” landed as too cutesy and corny for me. I also don’t buy her as much of a hellraiser, which is why the title track falls somewhat flat, even if I do appreciate the slightly rougher southern-rock approach taken there.

If anything, that might also bring me to my last nitpick, in that while I think this album sports a lot of gorgeous tonal texture, I do think it could have afforded to take bigger swings in some of the compositions; it just starts to blend together after a point. It’s why I appreciate the more pronounced dynamics of “Want Me Now,” and especially the closing track, “Good Morning, Goodbye,” opting for something different as just a stark piano ballad where all of that vintage country-folk elegance shines beautifully. All in all, though, I think this is one hell of a beautiful debut album – gorgeously produced, consistently well-written, and a lot of fun overall. What a great discovery to start the year.

(8/10)

• Favorite tracks: “Something We Regret,” “Baby Blue,” “Tequila or Whiskey,” “Want Me Now,” “Damned”
• Least favorite track: “Southern Belle, Raisin’ Hell”

Buy or stream the album.