Album Details

• Artist: Carmel Mikol
• Album: Creature
• Label:
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: tosnob on 2011-07-27

The album opens with a pair of fairly traditional folk numbers in the title track and "Lion or Lamb". The latter song is a classic folk tale of hardship and woe.

Conversely, that adherence to folk conventions falls incredibly flat on "Twenty Something Girl". The hamfisted political protest songs attacks all of the usual cliched easy targets (corporations, religion, the United States, people who work for a living), while offering no solution or insight into the perceived problems. A little more originality in the metaphors or creative phrasing would have been useful. It's not a shining moment.

Mikol is most successful when she injects elements of other musical styles into her mix. There's a '40s saloon lilt to "Leaver" that makes it a lively cut. "Made" is an all-out country ditty, which, as is the case with all the best country songs, includes some clever lyrics.

I'm usually not a ballad man, so it's a little surprising that one of the standouts for me is "Somewhere Else". The jazzy tinge of the songs provides an atmosphere in which Mikol's warm rich vocals can shine.

Despite some pretty predictable themes, Creature does have more highlights than low points. It is probably an album that translates very well to the live setting.

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