Tami Neilson – Kingmaker
(Neilson Records / Southbound)
Reviewed by Rob Harbers.
As attention spans are getting shorter in these curious times, here’s the tl;dr version of this review: Class, sass, and ready to kick ass!
For the more attentive out there, here’s the longer version. On this latest album, Tami Neilson steps up to claim her place as a true star of Southern climes-quite fitting after the nation’s recent embrace office Matariki. As she sings it, “most famous girl that no-one’s heard of yet – but I’m ready”, and on the strength of this collection, she better be!
The album opens with the title track, which in a little over two minutes lays out the table for the sonic banquet to follow, with its string arrangement and heavenly choir, describing women breaking out from the invisible supporting roles into which they’ve historically been pigeonholed, and coming out into the light. Pure class.
“Careless Woman” brings out the sass, upturning patriarchal ideas of women knowing their place and staying there – a theme further explored in the subsequent “Baby You’re A Gun”.
A lot of the lyrical content of this album shows a clear lineage and inspiration from Tami’s traveling spectacle “The F Word – Feminism in Country Music”. This show explored the ways in which the distaff side of the country music family has been held down and underrated. But it was anything but a dry recitation of depressing facts, being hugely entertaining at the same time – providing a template for this album, in many ways. These are songs that aim to kick some ass, and explode the patriarchy – while also pleasing the ears. So even if you don’t want to listen to the lyrics (which would be a waste, but each to their own!), you’ll still find much to enjoy from the sheer musicality on display here.
Themes of love and loss inform a brace of songs, the touching “Beyond The Stars” (with guest vocals from Willie Nelson), and “I Can Forget”, found in demo form on a tape left by Tami’s father and finished by her.
“Green Peaches” channels the feel of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” with lyrics describing sexual predation (“Hey, you gotta know when to pick em, before they’re too grown to see, green peaches, steal‘em right off the tree”), while at the other end of the dial speed-wise is “Mama’s Talkin’” which owes a heavy debt to Elvis’s “Pump It Up”.
Closing out the collection, and in a way summarising all that’s gone before, is the down and dirty “Ain’t My Job”, bringing a swampy, funky vibe to proceedings, closing out with Tami’s infectious laugh, serving to remind that this is all infused with a sardonic wit – while she might yet destroy the patriarchy, she’s gonna enjoy herself along the way!
And then it’s all over – a manifesto of joy, love and societal change, painted with a full sonic palette and a definite contender for my album of the year!
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