ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Mia Dyson has an amazing voice. Think a little bit Patti Smith, if Smith sang country rock, mixed with Joan Jett. Dyson is absolutely gripping, and you feel what she feels, elation or despair. She takes you with her.
This release is much more country-driven than her previous, rockier album, The Moment. It still has some wild, belt-your-heart out-anthems, though – in particular ‘Idyllwild’ and ‘Crazy Horse’, which she recorded previously with the trio Dyson, Stringer & Cloher.
Many of these tracks reflect on the passage of time, and it sounds like things are getting better: “Maybe we don’t have to make it / Maybe we have it made / I’m learning to live, darlin’ / In my own skin” (‘Growing Up’). ‘Made From The Same Clay’is a beautiful call to compassion. Dyson wrote it after being confronted with “rampant and very visible homelessness” when she moved to Los Angeles, reminding us that “We are made from the same clay / I could be you on a different day”. ‘Based On Your Eyes’ is the surprise track – it’s more soul and gospel than anything else and beautiful to boot.
4/5.
Idyllwild is out now through MGM.
