Album Pick of the Week: Tara Watts - About Love

At home amongst fellow indie folksters the likes of Sam Beam or Leslie Feist, Windsor’s own soul-bearing singer-song writer Tara Watts has carved a niche for herself in the local scene these past few years, playing to hushed and loyal crowd across the city. The title for Tara’s CD debut, About Love, is not ironic or misleading: over the span of its eleven tracks the album details the highs and lows of romantic relationships, and all of those things that get stirred up in the tumult of love: “Over-Eager Heart” is a lament which ends with narrator praying to God to give her the strength not to punch her former lover’s new flame “in the fucking face”, “Hail Outside” reiterates the pain of heartbreak, while “Sunlight” has the narrator pulled through the torrent of romantic-introspection to finally question, “when does this get better?”. Indeed, when does it ever?

A lot has been made of Watt’s choice to add a backing band on this album, a clear deviation from the solo-acoustic performances she was known for. However, the contributions made by local musicians Johnny West (yeah!), Sally Zori, and her brother Brendan Watts never over power Tara’s intimate delivery of the material but add flourishes and depth to the songs. The song to best benefit from this collaboration is the album’s centre-piece, “In the Backyard”: its faux-cabaret swing and ghostly piano evokes a sound more akin to a restrained Dresdon Dolls than any other material from Watts’ canon, a great indication of where the places Watts could progress to given such musical collaboration. Kudos should also be given to the recordings made by Eric Welton, resulting in an sound as subtle and intimate that Watt’s song writing required it to be.

The result is a consistent listen that both compliments the style Watts had worked on during her coffee-house gigs, but is forward looking to her progression as a song-writer and collaborator. About Love is a truly outstanding and enjoyable debut from one of Windsor’s greatest talents.

Listen To: “In the Backyard”, “Sunlight”, “Hail Outside”

RIYL: Twilight Hotel, Feist, Iron & Wine