Viewfinder Records
2003
High Dive
About This Album
Seven years between albums is a long time. But in her quest for artistic freedom and total control over her own material, Maria McKee took the time to get out from under the Geffen imprint, write a host of new songs, and create a new band. And as is her wont, her effort on High Dive is something as different from her earlier recordings as they were from one another. In 1996, when Life Is Sweet was released, McKee had left behind the country-rock that had established her for a raucous and wooly aggressive rock sound where she played all the guitars -- in overdrive. That record was full of grief, rage, and the desire to shed her skin. It was a misunderstood work of high, inimitable art. High Dive is by turns a gorgeous rock record and a Baroque pop masterpiece. Strings, horns, and a full-on rock band grace its 14 tracks -- including an absolutely stunning redo of Life Is Sweet's title track. McKee has always possessed two gifts as a lyricist: her ability to make all images completely vivid and her naked compassion and empathy. All of the songs here are loaded with both. Her melodies are positively irresistible and infectious, and her lyrical tomes are full of everything from the longing for freedom -- "To the Open Paces," to codependence, "Be My Joy," to a near Buddhist sense of loving kindness, "Life Is Sweet," to all notions of love and loss.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,8,12 and 14)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.