Kris Delmhorst – Shotgun Singer

When you strip your canvas way down, each splash of color you manage to work in has a dramatic and weighted impact. Kris Delmhorst beautifully flaunts that minimalist artistic approach on her latest release. Starting with the songs themselves, Delmhorst pares back her chord changes, often building around simple broken chords on a nylon-string guitar or a piano. This restraint allows Delmhorsts beguiling voice to sweep through her silvery melodies, with layers of vocal harmony added as the songs build. She and co-producer Sam Kassirer tastefully introduce bursts of subtle adornment throughout, with exotic percussion, organ, cello, electric guitar, vibraphone, and even guitar loops and record samples. To The Wire, 1000 Reasons and Midnight Ringer, among the best tunes Delmhorst has ever recorded, exhibit this non-formulaic formula quite nicely, and they get better each time you revisit them.