(2020) Cat Clyde - Good Bones


Review:
In an age when many artists are releasing albums chock-full of cover tunes, folkster Cat Clyde has opted, with her latest outing Good Bones, to cover… herself. It’s a back to basics approach with Clyde sticking with her tried-and-true acoustic formula. A tip of the cap to her early days when it was just her and her guitar, Good Bones is a reimagining of many of Clyde’s songs from previous releases — it’s barebones, earthy, organic and intriguing all-around. Kicking off with the grungy chord progression of “Mama Said”, Clyde, from the outset, is in her element. There’s no guitar solos, but instead a wealth of vocal improvisations, scoops and scats. Clyde’s voice is nuanced and melodically interesting throughout. The acoustic format also finds her less married to a click track, which enables her to make strong use of dynamics and experiment with tempo changes for emotional effect. At the end of the day, is the stripped-down style of Good Bones a one-off to keep Clyde busy during lockdown, or is it a retraction of the electric, bigger budget and full-band nature of previous outings, like Hunter’s Trance? At the bare minimum, Good Bones is low-hanging fruit for her hardcore fans, while casual passersby will find the eccentricities of the vocal acrobatics well worth the listen.





Tracklist:



Media Report:
Genre: acoustic, indie-folk
Source: CD
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits