Hear/Say:  Failer just when you are trying to acclimate yourself with the next big female "alt-country" singer/songwriter (e.g., casey chambers, patti griffin, whoever opened the last lucinda williams tour), an industry buzz starts on a new one. the latest hype is on the 24-year-old kathleen edwards, and justifiably; with her debut cd failer, she surpasses chambers and griffin in at least appeal and attitude. the lucinda williams comparisons are inevitable. like williams, edwards' raspy, sometimes insolent delivery makes a personal connection with the listener. but with fellow ottawaian bill bryson's searing guitar presence fueling edwards' sardonic underside, failer has more in common with the music of whiskeytown, the replacements or even everybody knows this is nowhere-era neil young. bryson's work on the cd's opener, "six o'clock news," sets the energy level. illustrating a gunman's standoff with the police as seen through his lover's eyes, bryson's searing lead emphasizes the narrator's frustration: "you spend half your life turning/the other half around." this theme of the inevitable failure of relationships permeates the cd. on the tom petty-tinged "maria," edwards begs an unfaithful boyfriend to "move out on me/because i only weigh you down" and pronounces that "now i'm in love with the road." edwards embraces the fact she will not succeed in love, and this gives failer an exhilarating but also sad feel. on "12 bellevue" - which would not sound out of place on exile on main street - she attempts to disdain any reciprocal loyalty: "i'm not going to be your friend/so take off your clothes and get in my bed." the jangly "westby" is a proclamation that "if you weren't so old/i'd probably tell my friends/but your wife probably wouldn't like my friends" - with no evidence of remorse. other material on failer is quite somber, made all the more stark by string arrangements performed and arranged by the classically trained edwards. the best use of the strings is on "hockey skates," a pull-no-punches break-up ballad where edwards laments being "sick of consequence/and the look on your face" while sarcastically noting "we can talk like we are friends/going over it all again/talk about everything i'm doing wrong." the layered vocal arrangement chills the terse "mercury" ("it's like you said/would have turned up dead/in a car/wanna go get high") while "national steel" is sullen in its oblique references (trading your daughter $2000/for a national steel"). "write a hit so i can talk you up/nobody likes a girl who won't sober up," a shady a&r man advises edwards on the rollicking "one more song the radio won't like." as with other "alt-country" albums, radio probably won't like failer - especially with the cd's gritty grooves and even grittier attitude. But that won't keep it from finding a devoted audience and finding itself on several "best of" lists at the end of 2003. grade: a jeff ehrbar hearsay.cc				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews