Sidecho Records
2006
Leave To Remain
About This Album
Acoustic instruments and downy-soft vocals are Kathryn Williams' forte on Leave to Remain, her sixth release since 1999's breakthrough debut, Dog Leap Stairs. Like that first album, Leave rustles up the intimacy of Joni Mitchell's most private material, with Williams delivering her observations and confessions in a singsong whisper. The arrangements are sparser this time around; of the 16 guest musicians listed on the album sleeve, only a small handful play on any given track. Williams' accented alto and literate lyrics are kept at the forefront, which -- given the strength of what she has to say, as well as the relative letdown of Leave's ornate predecessor, Over Fly Over -- is a stealthily smart move. Is Leave to Remain a conscious allusion to Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left? It's hard to say, but Williams' continued comparisons to Drake are, as always, well deserved. She lingers over every melody, her voice hushed and humble as string sections and finger-plucked guitars bubble beneath her. The subdued style wears thin toward the disc's end, but several variations in volume -- most notably the countryish semi-ballad "Hollow" -- hold their own with Leave's stellar side A.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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