Garrison Starr is determined to set herself apart from mainstream, radio-friendly pop as a creative songwriter with her third solo album, “The Sound of You and Me.” The musical style on the album is more raw than her past albums, and the lyrics are more emotional.
Starr describes the album as ” … about my search for lasting love in my life and the experiences and heartaches I’ve endured in that journey.”
The third track, “Sing it Like a Victim,” is a creative track that uses some techniques not extremely common, though not entirely uncommon either, among female folk singers to give this song a unique twist. It is a catchy song that opens with percussion, minimalist instrumentation and slightly quirky vocals. The song builds and becomes predictable when the instruments drop out except for sparse piano and a simple vocal line. The song fades out with multiple harmonies of Starr recorded over herself and some supporting male vocals to create a more electronic effect that nicely rounds out the song.
“Big Enough,” the fifth track, is slower with a more epic feel. Starr laments in six-eight time about a lost love and sings in the chorus, “We were in love/I thought it wasn’t big enough/I held you to me/so you had to be free.” Near the end of the song, we hear the first distorted guitar of the album soloing over a base playing two beats for every three of the drummers. This makes for a dramatic and complex end to this ballad.
If there were a song that stood out as a radio-friendly single, it would be the sixth track, “Beautiful in Los Angeles.” This song is sculpted in the form of Starr’s earlier work. It is distinctly shorter than the other songs on the album, with a more driving beat in standard four-four time. With the subtle pulsating bass guitar supporting lead vocals during the verse, an all-out power during the chorus of this song fits into a radio single mold perfectly. It is complete with climatic instrumental pauses near the end of the song and a drawn out ending.
The album ends with the emotional eleventh track, “We Were Just Boys and Girls.” Starr really gets into this track, using simpler lyrics but feeding more emotion into each word with her vocal inflections. The track is stripped down to just acoustic guitar, drums and vocals for the majority of the song.
With her voice so exposed, Starr lets loose, cracking her voice at times to the benefit of the overall effect of the song. The final track leaves the album with a sorrowful feeling that epitomizes Starr’s intentions of making this her most emotional album yet.
Alex Cooper can be reached at [email protected].
