Sam Phillips's latest album, Don't Do Anything, was welcomed with critical praise upon its release earlier this summer. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle music critic Jeff Spevak adds to the kudos when he calls her "a monument to artistic vision" and writes: "I wouldn't hesitate to compare her high standards and sense of offbeat arrangement to Tom Waits." Spevak points in particular to the album's "disarmingly simple and charming title track," for which Sam, who also produced the record, "chooses distorted guitar when most other writers might have gone the piano-ballad route, as violin slowly emerges" on a lyric he calls "slow, smoldering and nakedly intimate."

To read the review, visit democratandchronicle.com.

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The San Antonio Current's Gilbert Garcia also praises the new record, writing: "As on all of her best work, Phillips is humble and open-hearted, invitingly tuneful but unsparing in her assessment of the emotional wreckage she sees." He also singles out the title track, as exemplary of Sam's writing style, which, he says,

works beautifully, especially with the uncanny title track, one of the most remarkable love songs ever penned. Here, Phillips gushes that she loves her man (creator?) most when he does nothing, serves no purpose, and makes no effort to prove himself. We could say the same about her.

To read the full review, visit sacurrent.com.