Failer - Kathleen Edwards

If I had to ever think of a Canadian alt-country version of Liz Phair, I'd probably come up with Kathleen Edwards. Whilst she's nowhere near the kind of 'sweary-mary' that Liz Phair is, nor do her track titles evoke blushes if your parents happen to read them, she does come close to the borders of respectability. "Failer", her debut album released in 2003, is raw, edgy and earthy yet surprisingly good, telling tales of screwed-up people ...
...over by those responsible for the glossy tourist brochures....

Kathleen Edwards might not set the world alight with her vocals judging by the first few tracks - you could even say they're rather depressing at times, but with a title like "Failer", depressing is pretty much apt and in keeping with the subject matter. Yet they've got a curious quality of their own when she's not always trying to keep up with the faster-paced ... more

If I had to ever think of a Canadian alt-country version of Liz Phair, I'd probably come up with Kathleen Edwards. Whilst she's nowhere near the kind of 'sweary-mary' that Liz Phair is, nor do her track titles evoke blushes if your parents happen to read them, she does come close to the borders of respectability. "Failer", her debut album released in 2003, is raw, edgy and earthy yet surprisingly good, telling tales of screwed-up people from back-roads Canada - well, at least the ones skipped over by those responsible for the glossy tourist brochures....

Kathleen Edwards might not set the world alight with her vocals judging by the first few tracks - you could even say they're rather depressing at times, but with a title like "Failer", depressing is pretty much apt and in keeping with the subject matter. Yet they've got a curious quality of their own when she's not always trying to keep up with the faster-paced tracks - especially on the almost morbidly-slow "Mercury". By the time you reach "Westby" and "Maria", two of the quicker songs further down the track listing, though, she's got it nailed just right - whilst they don't sound overly optimistic, they're much more melodic. There's a common theme in the subjects though - failed relationships, her scorn for the 'old boys club' that runs the music industry and the same barriers that stop her music being played more widely on the radio - virtually every track gets a dig in somewhere.... yet if you treat it as simply an alt-country album, you can easily miss all of this attitude.

"Failer" lists ten tracks, amongst which lie at least two of the more quirkier titles you're likely to have come across recently:

1. Six O'Clock News
2. One More Song The Radio Won't Like
3. Hockey Skates
4. The Lone Wolf
5. 12 Bellevue
6. Mercury
7. Westby
8. Maria
9. National Steel
10. Sweet Little Duck

Kathleen Edwards has as much attitude as Liz Phair and even has the band to back it up. "Six O'Clock News" hits you as a fairly ordinary alt-country tune, yet there are much darker undertones running right through it - a tale about an angry young man holed up in a house with a gun, his only possible salvation being the knowledge that his girl is pregnant - she's watching his story unfold on the news. That should really spell disaster for a song but she's packaged it up in a strangely humm-able, if ultimately not a sing-along-able tune where the backing provides the optimism.

"One More Song The Radio Won't Like" is an unashamedly upfront attack on mainstream US radio not playing material from artists writing edgier songs - "Reel it in and shut your mouth, reputations are in doubt, write a hit so I can talk you up, no one likes a girl who won't sober up." Whilst there should be scope for the lyrics to be literally spat out, she's surprisingly laid back here and the accompaniment again challenges all expectations with a strangely upbeat arrangement. You could sail right through this song without really knowing what it's telling you, and yet still enjoy it - so maybe the Dixie Chicks should call on Kathleen Edwards for pointers the next time Natalie Maines wants to have a go at Shrub?

On the surface "Hockey Skates" sinks about as low as you can get, depression-wise on this album - yet it's totally in keeping with what the song's about. "I'm so tired of playing defence and I don't even have hockey skates" pretty much sums up what's going on here, a failed relationship that's played itself out to the point where everyone, including the singer, is completely weary of it. Once again, though, the uplifting yet assuredly understated backing redeems the track completely, making listening an enjoyable event rather than a chore. Not one to be skipped over.

"The Lone Wolf" contains a great hook that just catches you more and more each successive time you listen to the song, contrasting with Kathleen's maudlin yet surprisingly airy vocals and that understated backing again.

"Westby" picks up the pace from the preceding three tracks, one of the most upbeat songs on the album. Yet listen closely to the lyrics and it's a story of a married man having an affair with a young girl in a seedy motel room, the latter talking about stealing his watch and effectively blackmailing him - "I don't think your wife would like my friends." She dresses it all up for fun, though - her vocals take on a more cheerier tone and they're the most country-fied you'll get on "Failer".

The next track - "Maria" - is probably the most rock-orientated song on the album and therefore the most radio-friendly, but of course Kathleen Edwards isn't going to let the listener off that easily. Delve beneath the gorgeous guitars and there's a story of a road trip to despair. This is arguably the most memorable song on "Failer" - a killer arrangement and about as close to good old rock-and-roll as you're likely to get from this artist.

A swift change of gears, though, and you're plunged into depression once more with "National Steel", a tale of yet another dysfunctional relationship going off the rails - "I've got no f**king clue from your point of view and your time zone, I wouldn't have asked, saved you the task if I weren't for real, trading a daughter and two thousand dollars for a national steel." Despite the truly downbeat tone, the backing band provides a complete contrast again.

Kathleen Edwards has been hailed in some quarters as the new Lucinda Williams - that's doing both a dis-service. In the former's case, she's clearly happy writing and performing this sort of material, almost in the Aimee Mann mould of writing fifteen songs for a new album and throwing out the five happiest ones.... Kathleen's comfortable writing about the seedier side of life that others seem to shy away from, probably because it affects radio play. That's unfortunate for the radio stations, though: both "Westby" and "Maria" work on the surface as straight-forward catchy, rocking songs - it's only when you listen more closely you enter the world she's writing about.

The CD inlay is pretty sparse and does not contain any lyrics.

Kathleen Edwards followed up the local success of "Failer" with "Back To Me" in 2005 - and if the musicianship matches what's on display here, then it'll be a winner too - but there's no need to wonder whether she'll have sacrificed her lyrical qualities in search of radio play.... 

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