Sara Hickman – Spiritual Appliances

The triumphs and travails of Sara Hickman in the music industry are the stuff of minor legend. The budding folk-pop diva established herself with her 1989 debut Equal Scary People and was musically aligned with rising artists such as Tracy Chapman and Michelle Shocked, but her focus on the politics of the heart placed her squarely in camps with Joan Armatrading and Jane Siberry.

After the muted success of her sophomore release Shortstop, Hickman was dropped by Elektra, which held the masters for her third album. When she couldn’t raise the ransom herself, she enlisted the help of her rabid fans, who came through with the exorbitant amount, allowing Hickman to self-release Necessary Angels. Since that indie success, Hickman has explored a number of options, including her continuing work with the bluegrass trio Domestic Science Club and a recent foray into children’s music titled Newborn.

Meanwhile, she’s carved out a niche for her wonderful combination of serious folk-rock artistry and loopy pop novelty. With her sixth album, the self-produced Spiritual Appliances, Hickman blends her two distinct musical personalities into a more singular and more electric essence, a process that began on her last outing, Two Kinds Of Laughter.

Opening with “Standing Ground”, the bubbly kind of celebration that has become her signature, she betrays her pop influences by throwing in the vocal background harmonies from the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” at the end of the propulsive “Kerosene”. She infuses songs such as “Life” and “Bowl Full Of Stars” with a similar pop quirkiness that has marked The Roches’ more interesting recordings, while wringing true emotion out of heart-pounders such as “We Are Each Other’s Angels” and the seven-minute mini-opus “Moment Of Grace”.