Vanessa Carlton Returns with Stunning “Liberman”

To compare Vanessa Carlton’s fifth studio album Liberman to anything else she has created over the course of her lengthy career would be unfair. Upon listening to its haunting vocal harmonies and lush, thoughtful production, both new listeners and longtime fans will understand just how much she has grown and evolved as an artist since escaping the vice of major record labels.

In the last few years, she has gotten married to Deer Tick front man John MacCauley, had a baby girl, and settled in Nashville. Her sound has matured on every level, and is at its most elevated with this dreamy, folk pop record that finds a much more confident Carlton hitting her stride.

Aside from her signature golden voice, Carlton’s also always been known for her enchanting piano playing and her deeply personal songwriting, authentically confronting the realities of being young and sexual in the pre-Taylor Swift age. Liberman is proof that Carlton has not lost any of these skills, and instead learned how to hone them. Her melodies are soft and ethereal, and her arrangements have lost the over-produced theatricality present in many of her earlier songs.

Opener “Take it Easy” is an electro-pop stunner with runaway hit potential, and it introduces us to the central theme of these new songs: feeling stuck somewhere between looking back and letting go. This comes up frequently in her lyrics, but this particular tune is the finest display of her emotional purgatory. Similarly, “Nothing Where Something Used to Be” is the ultimate breakup song, capturing that gut-wrenching self-doubt and simultaneous self-discovery that ensue in the wake of heartbreak.

Her songs are still full of catchy pop hooks, but they’re more subdued and controlled. Liberman is cohesively crafted from start to finish, and should be consumed as a whole. The overall aesthetic is dreamy, but earthy and honest. “Matter of Time” and “Willows” are the folksiest of the bunch, and real standouts for their subtle beauty. This recalibration suits all of Carlton’s best qualities, and she is playing them up in a way only a self-assured woman really can.