Maria Taylor - Lady Luck Album Review

Review of Maria Taylor's album Lady Luck released through Nettwerk.

That Maria Taylor is perhaps better known for her romantic 'liaison' with a certain Conor Oberst perhaps says more about the ignorance of the general public than it does her music. While her solo career may have received a healthy leg-up courtesy of her one-time beau, her initial excursions into song as one-half of seminal country rock duo Azure Ray shouldn't be dismissed. If anything, the gorgeous 'Burn And Shiver' collection, Azure Ray's sophomore long player, is perhaps the closest anyone has got to the delicately poised, psychedelia-tinged roots-orientated bliss of Mazzy Star's 1993 opus 'So Tonight That I Might See'. That much of those comparisons are down to Ms. Taylor's warmly astute vocal performance is testament itself in suggesting she's more than just a notch on Bright Eyes bedpost.

Aside from her Azure Ray days and subsequent solo work, Taylor has also collaborated with numerous artists this past decade, something which means we can add the word 'prolific' to the already undisputed 'consistent' descriptive that's often applied to her. In the case of 'Lady Luck', her third record of self-penned material, it can almost be seen as the beginning of a whole new chapter in Taylor's life. Having recently moved to LA from the more homely confines of Alabama, this is also the first time Saddle Creek haven't been involved with the recording process, preferring instead to release this on the more discordant Nettwerk label. As a result - and probably down to lyrical asides such as 'I'm making a change' from the poignant 'It's Time' - the rumour mill has been in overdrive about 'Lady Luck' being something of a break-up record, something Taylor has shied away from discussing in public.

Of course there's also the fact that her music is more likely to be heard on American soaps such as 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Dawson's Creek' rather than the Pitchfork music festival these days; a sign of the times maybe and one that probably says more about the increasing need for artists and their publishers to outsource music to television in the age of illegal downloads and suchlike.

However, across its ten tracks, 'Lady Luck' is something of a whimsical journey that never strays from the blueprint she set back in 2005 with '11:11', musically at any rate. 'Time Lapse Lifeline' is a puritanical coaster that starts off uncannily like Placebo's 'Every You Every Me' before Taylor's elegant vocal pulls the sublime away from the clutching jaws of ridicule, while the folk-scented opine of 'Green Butterfly' sounds like a radiant homage to Simon and Garfunkel, such is the delicate nature of her whispered, luscious tones.

One criticism of 'Lady Luck' is that after a while things do start to sound a bit samey - the cold laments of 'Broad Daylight', 'Orchids' and 'A Chance' are just about passable, if uneasy listening in one relentless sitting that become more reticent with every subsequent play. Likewise the title track, which opens proceedings in an aimless, rather than joyful manner, giving no indication whatsoever that almost two-thirds of the record do contain hidden treasures of sorts.

That Taylor chose to save the best til last - 'Cartoons And Forever Plans', a swoonsome duet with Michael Stipe (who also co-wrote it) at least makes 'Lady Luck' worth persevering with, and more than justifies her existence as a credible, if slightly vulnerable artist in her own right. However, the spectre of Conor Oberst still looms heavily, even if their association has long since severed.

6/10

Dom Gourlay