Guns N’Roses

MUSIC
MUSIC
This is the sound of a young
woman truly coming of age. Love,
lust, loss—they’re all here in a
batch of honestly expressed songs
that mine the heart of the human
experience.
Sultry vocals and a swampy
slide guitar mark “House of Mercy,”
a humid blues about the irresistible
pull of bad love. But that’s just a
warm-up to the steamy confessional
“Everything to Hide.” Longing for
a would-be lover, the narrator
Sarah Jarosz
expresses her innermost fantasies: Undercurrent
“I wanna tell you that I’m thankful for Sugar Hill Records, LP or CD
your fingers on those strings/Wanna
whisper low into your ear all these
On “Take Another Turn,” Jarosz
forbidden things.” It mutates into a openly frets about being lost on the
fearless erotic expression when the map, taking wrong turns, and realizing
“there ain’t no going back.” With
singer admits, “Well I never really
thought that I could be a child of sin/ her voice ringing like a melancholy
Now here I come confessing of these bell against a simply picked guitar,
childish hopes within.”
the unvarnished admission draws the
Sadnesses inevitably stack up
listener close. Similarly entrancing, a
in the pursuit of love. A relationship
shivering “Lost Dog” finds Jarosz at
ends but the memory remains in
her best. The minimalist production
“Back of My Mind,” a slow-burner
places her sparse banjo and wistful
©Photo by Scott Simontacchi
filled with pedal-steel cries and
vocals front and center. Whether it’s
With Undercurrent, singer, songwriter, and
mournful wisps of electric guitar.
a man or a mutt she sings about,
Even when Jarosz sounds down
the effect is the same. The narrator
multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz continues
and out, the effect feels entrancing.
remains both enchanted by and wary
to build an enviable career with progressive
Filled with a trembling sense of loss,
of the stray in her yard: “If I open my
“Early Morning Light” is a sparse and
door/Make you my friend/Are you
and beautiful roots music. Her 2013 breakthrough
Build Me Up from Bones earned
tender tune stripped down to guitar
gonna run out and get lost again?”
and vocal. She sings: “The wall of
It’s a question everyone asks
her rave reviews and guest appearances on
early morning light/Creeps into my when they take a chance on love.
bedroom quiet/I’ll close the blinds to Kudos to Jarosz for asking it out
“Conan” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”
keep it out/My whole world is darker loud on this striking album.
Her new release should take her even further.
now.”
—Chrissie Dickinson
52 TONE AUDIO NO.78
AUGUST 2016 53