New York Times music critic Jon Pareles visits some albums he missed in 2008 amidst the deluge of new releases and recommends Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything as one that was "worth the wait." Through the songs' Beatles-esque sound and "casual, confiding side" of Sam's vocals, says Pareles, comes "the terse elegance of songs about love gone bad and the lessons and possibilities it leaves behind, songs that only become more telling because they stay so deliberately unadorned."
Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything received no shortage of praise when it was released last summer; Bob Boilen, host of NPR's All Songs Considered, in his year-end wrap-up, called her "just about the best pop-music songwriter there is," who "makes the records I'd always hoped Paul McCartney would make." New York Times music critic Jon Pareles makes that McCartney connection too. Putting the turn of the calendar year to good use, he visits some albums he missed in 2008 amidst the deluge of new releases and recommends Don't Do Anything as one that was "worth the wait." Pareles writes:
She uses a wry honky-tonk bounce and chord progressions quietly suggesting the Beatles; she keeps her voice on the casual, confiding side too. All of that barely conceals the terse elegance of songs about love gone bad and the lessons and possibilities it leaves behind, songs that only become more telling because they stay so deliberately unadorned.
Read the complete article at nytimes.com.
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