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CD review: Eliza Gilkyson
Eliza Gilkyson
‘Beautiful World’
(Red House)
One happy-go-lucky love song into this CD, I was ready to report that “Beautiful World” is Austin singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson’s watershed album —- that is to say, her first truly joyful record of the 21st century, the kind of record our admittedly angst-ridden, socially conscious heroine promises to record for us … someday. Just not right now.
Sure enough, “Beautiful World” is a terrific album: topical, poetic, impassioned, witty and (as always) deeply attuned to matters of Earth and nature. But I wouldn’t file this one under the “Happy” bin. Gilkyson’s new songs are built on the premise that we live in perilous times —- personally, politically, environmentally, nationally, globally —- and that a big change is gonna come. “Beautiful World, ” indeed.
Yet the dominant emotion in most of these songs is hope, the idea that the “light burns brightest in the darkest times.” The very best of these new tunes —- such as “The Great Correction” or the delightful “Unsustainable” —- seems to welcome the day of reckoning, as if to say our planet will be healthier, our conscience will be healthier, our world will be healthier, when we’re forced at last to face the sin of our own neglect.
So file this one under “Hope.” Or maybe: “Revolution.” Recommended:“Wildewood Spring” and “Great Correction” —- Brad Buchholz
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By Stella Maxwell
November 11, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this
Hey Brad- Would you be interested in ever doing a write-up on the Lonestar Rollergirls? We’re the bank-track roller derby league here in Austin. If you were interested, you could interview me as being the singer for Cruiserweight who is also involved in roller derby here in Austin. Just a thought… Thanks! Stella