Description
Clarks third album as a solo artist, Your Life Is a Record, furthers her search for new stories, even if the emotional territory is more familiar. Its a break-up album, less focused on wordplay and punchlines than universal truths. And while her songwriting continues to avoid the obvious path, her arrangements decidedly do not.
Produced by Jay Joyce, an in-demand Nashville figure whos worked with Eric Church and Keith Urban among many others, the album bursts with orchestral flourishes and horn sections, swelling to symphonic extremes that can feel distracting during the ballads and pointedly ironic on the lighter fare.
The latter approach suggests the ornate, tragicomic work of Randy Newman, and indeed, the man himself lends vocals to a song called Bigger Boat that would fit seamlessly in his own repertoire. For Clark, its more of a stretch, especially considering the way her two previous albums2013s 12 Stories and 2016s Big Day in a Small Townpaired intimate stories with textures to match. She now challenges herself to locate her characters in more dramatic settings, where their small-town worries feel colossal and cinematic.
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