Hiss Golden Messenger
I’m People
Chrysalis
I wondered how the rest of I’m People would hold up to “In the Middle of It,” the slam dunk of a single that opens the record. It’s risky to be the clarion call for the eleven tracks to follow. “In the Middle of It” sets a high bar then steps aside for what unfolds: a gorgeous album with several standouts that I hope will receive the airplay and attention they deserve.
In telling the story of how the album came to be, MC Taylor writes, “The songs on I’m People are about running towards and away from things, about reasonable and realistic hope and expectations, about having babies, getting older, love and lust and luck and music.”
As if that’s not enough to unpack in twelve songs, the big picture is stitched together with a very intentional common thread of truth, lies, magic, and faith.
If I have a favorite other than the opening track, it rises up as “Mercy Avenue,” going into memories at a comforting slow tempo with just enough hand-drum shuffle and tenor sax to let the lyrics waft in circles over the melody like second-hand smoke. Grandmother Lucy’s Cadillac smelling “like ‘Slow Hand’” is the line that earns the song every right to be on repeat, even if you’ve never cringed through the Conway Twitty classic.
The title track brings a narrative of straight arrow truth folded with mystery and magic (and faith) with reference to Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery to illustrate the journey of someone broken and called out for it. The fortune teller reminds our narrator that “nobody makes it alone.”
We’re people who need people.
Perhaps the message is that we are each other’s lacquer.
The album isn’t just overflowing with stunning lyrics; Taylor brought in the perfect balance of strings, percussion, reeds, and vocals that shows off the writing and lets some special guests add their own magic dust. Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, I’m With Her) punctuates “Seneca (Time is a Mother, Baby)” with sweet fiddle. Amy Helm brings perfect harmony on “Gabriel.” You’ll recognize Bruce Hornsby, Sam Beam (Iron and Wine), Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), and Marcus King among the talent who brought I’m People into its full potential as an album. The stained glass windows of Dreamland Studios, the decommissioned church near Woodstock, NY, where the album was recorded, clearly played the role of the filter Taylor wanted.
I got lost in the best way in “Last Orders,” a fist-in-the-air anthem with the ultimate declaration of joy as resistance. Let’s just never get older
“Depends on the River,” closes out the album with both existential questions from Taylor, and perhaps an ask to the listener, “what do you think?” The full choir of guest contributors is here to make this song the perfect sendoff.
Hiss Golden Messenger, as always, gives us so much to contemplate, but rather than a heaviness of unknown, we get a stair rail to stay in hope as we ascend or descend, depending on the day.
