Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
While the luminous melodies and rootsy twang of Samantha Crain’s debut album provide the ideal backdrop for a lazy weekend brunch, that’s only part of the story. In these emotional tales of people trying to make sense and order out of their messy lives, the 22-year-old Oklahoman sounds like Björk’s heartland cousin as her voice quavers with barely contained emotion. Prodded by woozy trombone, she sighs, “It’s a perfect day for dying,” in the mournful “Bananafish Revolution” (a nod to the J.D. Salinger story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”). On the ragtag “Devils in Boston,” a desperate farm girl ignores her mother’s warnings and flees to the city. Melodrama abounds, but the passion of Crain’s characters is never less than stirring.
