• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Nov 11, 2024 Web Exclusive By Mark Moody

Jennifer Castle operates in a unique niche where many of today’s popular artists wouldn’t be qualified to contribute. Or in fairness, might not even be interested if they were. Namely, songs aimed squarely at grown ass adults. Count Castle amongst them —the adults that is. Camelot, along with a nod to the Fountain of Youth, no doubt refers to a failed or non-existent paradise where, as Castle understands, one is left to rely solely on their own strengths. And maybe what nature provides to sustain us. Not only does Castle convey an innate knowledge of that she absolutely revels in it. Big hair don’t care and neither should you.

The big hair reference being a pivotal one from the raucous wah-wah guitar-propelled “Full Moon in Leo.” The song celebrates individuality with full on support from the wack-a-doo mysticism of the zodiac, the Chinese one and the other one. The lyrics find Castle doing household chores in nothing more than “my underwear and my attitude,” and probably with the shades undrawn. “I got big hair, don’t care, cause it’s full moon in Leo,” Castle giddily gushes while pushing her broom. A hilarious image, but also one that reeks of an irrefutable truth.

Not to stop the party, “Mary Miracle” follows on the heels of “Full Moon.” A careening organ riff fuels the anthem that wrestles with humanity’s place amongst the natural and the holy. “There by the riverbed thrashing in the mud, swimming upstream against all odds,” Castle sings in a song that touches on the intersection between The Virgin Mary, Mother Earth, and perhaps Camelot’s own Guinevere. Heady things that for their weight don’t stand in the way of having a good time musically.

Castle’s stock in trade is championing the perfectly imperfect. While not everything on Camelot is as easily digestible as the above —“Trust” and “Louis” prove to interrupt the flow at the album’s beginning —the bookended piano and string ballads of the opening “Camelot” and later “Blowing Kisses” more than smooth things out. “Blowing Kisses” is particularly soulful and imparts a bit of Randy Newman’s air of nostalgia without any of the cynicism.

Camelot contains its share of heady bops, but closes on two of its quietest and reverential songs. “Earthsong” makes further reference to Mother Mary and the wonder of the natural world. “I’m never just your girl, I belong to the world,” Castle reminds her partner in the song. While the closing “Fractal Canyon” has a more anthemic feel with Castle fully giving in to the rhythms around her. “Metronome or a woodpecker, I don’t know one from the other,” Castle returns to a few times in a repeated refrain. But perhaps the lines that sum up Castle’s grown-up ethos best come near the song’s end: “You can find me in the kitchen, I’ll be breaking the dishes, or I’m down on my knees, I’m giving the river my kisses.”

Seven albums in and Castle isn’t exactly a household name. But she gamely keeps plowing along. Warts and all, Castle is doing her damn thing and she doesn’t seem to care who notices or doesn’t. Her work, including Camelot, feels born more of compulsion than desire. That the truths spoken from decades of knowledge hit exactly right cement them as badges. Earned in daily battle and generously shared. No doubt Camelot’s repeated references to water, mothers earthly or otherwise, and the purely mythical contain more depth than how playfully some of the songs are doled out. Being comfortable in her own skin and place in the world allows Castle to communicate as she pleases. (www.jennifercastlemusic.com)

Author rating: 8/10