A Small Death

Album review

No one would've blamed Samantha Crain if her sixth album was full of self-pity and sad songs. Over the past three years, the Choctaw singer/songwriter was afflicted with tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome so bad she had to cancel a US tour; lived through three car accidents in as many months; and had to deal with panic attacks and depression brought on by all that trauma. Suddenly, this woman who has spoken of communicating through guitar couldn't even play her instrument. (She eventually regained the ability.) And while A Small Death confronts all that suffering—sometimes through gauze, sometimes head on—it is with strength, determination, and beautiful melodies. "Got the resolve and I got the conviction," she sings on "Constructive Eviction" before perfectly bittersweet brass lifts the tender quiet into celebratory mode. "Tough for You" and the spare "High Horse" (which Cat Power should really consider covering) hew close to the intimate folk Crain has become known for on albums like Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, but elsewhere she surprises. With its amiable drum beat, "Pastime" declares she's peers with a clever indie-pop artist like Phoebe Bridgers. This is also the first time Crain has produced her own work, having worked with John Vanderslice on her last three albums, and it turns out she has some nifty tricks up her sleeve. An empty-room vocal effect on opener "An Echo" lends spooky gravitas to lyrics like "When my hands appeared so useless/ I felt like a little baby/ And my pride evaporated/ Like the water in a skillet." Two minutes into the desert country of "Reunion," the pedal steel and driving drums are joined by saxophone—a bright light cutting through haze. (That sax later takes a smoky turn for the grunge-inflected "Garden Dove.") And on "Holding to the Edge of Night," when Crain draws out the word "night" so that it almost sounds like "naive," all while a flute trills, it's high-drama cinematic. The album wraps up with closer "Little Bits," which finds Crain phrasing lines in the style of—of all things—4 Non Blondes' "What's Up," and it's delicious. "As if to change the way it all went down...as if to dance the thought right out!" she howls: two minutes of hard-earned bliss. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz