Tracy Shedd
Cigarettes & Smoke Machines (Teenbeat)
By Annie Holub
Published: September 28th, 2008 | 9:00am
Tracy Shedd's fourth full-length album tips her slow-core balance more in the direction of "core" — it's louder, rawer, and more aggressive than her previous records, which often had Shedd filling the role of poetic indie chanteuse with guitar. Shedd's embracement of rock on Cigarettes & Smoke Machines is enthusiastic and breathtaking: Each song has a chorus complete with heartbreakingly melodic hooks — and the blend of Shedd's steady, emotive voice with her husband James Tritten's guitars is seductive.
But what Cigarettes & Smoke Machines gains in musical momentum, it loses a little in poetry. Shedd's signature slowly-strummed guitar is still alive and well, especially on "Remember the Time We Set the Highway On Fire?" (a definite standout track on the album) and "Paris," but for the most part, Shedd's pop melodies overpower the lilting melancholy of her previous work — to the point that if a song doesn't escalate into ear-throttling dramatics, it feels a little lost. "Paris" is a perfect example; on a previous Shedd record, like 2004's Louder Than You Can Hear, it would have stood out far more than it does on Cigarettes & Smoke Machines. In other words, Shedd has effectively outdone herself on this new album.
Despite this admirable feat, Shedd's louder songs seem to rely more on their musical power than on lyrical quality: The chorus of "Never Too Late" is the oft-heard phrase "it's never too late to fight for what you want," and on "Plastic World," Shedd likens the vacuousness of materiality to a prison. On both songs, though, the delivery is inflected with a certain earnestness that breathes a little bit of life back into the clichés. Tritten's particle-crushing guitars lend themselves so perfectly to Shedd's elegantly structured songs that paying attention to that dynamic alone becomes enough. And some songs, like "Go On," would be worse for the wear if they were even a smidge less direct: Tritten's lead guitar dances around the rhythm guitar and an almost trip-hop drum beat with tambourine as Shedd sings (ironically, given the energy of the song), "I like it when you go slow / And it feels so right." Ultimately, Cigarettes & Smoke Machines feels right, even though it doesn't go slow.
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Issue #28
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