Songs: Ohia - "Just Be Simple"

A weeping lap steel lament, ?Just Be Simple? is what it preaches. Its simplicity is such that it strikes a resounding chord of familiarity on first listening, like you have heard it on the car radio a thousand times before.

In Songs: Ohia?s latest work, Jason Molina calls to mind a struggling but dignified idealized America (as it only exists in song). He moves away from Will Oldham, and while maintaining a similarity in feeling to some of Neil Young?s work, adds to it the working class Americana of The Band or Bob Seeger.

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Joan Armatrading - "Love and Affection"

A folk singer from St. Kitts, Joan Armatrading was joined by members of Fairport Convention and The Faces for her self-titled third album. She abandoned the solo acoustic folk that characterized her first two records for a full band and heavily produced pop/rock.

?Love and Affection? isn?t a perfect song. Its production is dated and there?s a sax solo at 2:51 that leaves something to be desired (i.e. its absence). Yet Armatrading?s voice and songwriting shine through and it doesn?t take long to get past the shortcomings. Her voice is always precise, but varies wildly in tone, sometimes angelic and gossamer (as in the opening bars), sometimes yearning and passionate (as when she sings ?really dance/really move/really love?), and then at other times wide open and soulful (?with friends I still feel so insecure?). Sometimes she engages in a fiery gospel as when she calls for her interlocutor to ?sing it, sing it? just before the unfortunate sax solo.