Amy Millan: Honey From the Tombs

Of all the unlikely sub-genres to gain notoriety as of late, the female indie pop star searching for her inner Emmylou Harris gang has gotten tremendously bloated. Jenny Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat opened the floodgates for coy chanteuses who are dying to don cowboy hats, and that’s not a good thing.

Buying into the “Me too!” mentality is Stars and Broken Social Scene vocalist Amy Millan, an artist with a sultry but not particularly grasping delivery. The urban heehaw atmosphere does no justice to her cherubic and melancholic persona; songs like the schmaltzy Sheryl Crow groover “All the Miles” or the campfire lamentation “Baby I” make Millan come across as terribly insincere and bored, not heartbroken and reflective.

She fares better on the reverb-soaked ditty “Skinny Boy,” where she professes, “You’ve got lips I’d love to spend a day with.” The majority of her attempt at old-school country crooning is drunk on delusion and too much cheap liquor (“He Brings Out the Whiskey in Me”) and draws too shamelessly from Liz Phair at her most bluesy and Cerys Matthews.

You know a solo songwriter is hurting for the comfort of her band collaborators when she begins the closing track “Pour Me Up Another” with, “Blah blah blah, would everyone be quiet?” Though not downright dismal, Honey from the Tombs can’t hold its own against recordings from the Neko Cases of the world.

- Melissa Bobbit
Amy Millan (Arts & Crafts)