Parplar by Larkin Grimm

I might as well follow up my review of her performance with one of the album I bought at the show.


Strangely enough, Larkin Grimm was actually more engaging and dynamic live with just her guitar and banjo than she is on this album. Usually, a solo performance without a backing band tends to suffer for me, but she more than made up for it by singing loudly. Album opener "They Were Wrong" was captivating live. On the album it's just haunting. So while it's not bad, it suffers by comparison to the live version. This is generally true for most of the songs that I heard live.

But that's my one complaint about this album. Otherwise, this album is near flawless. For someone who keeps things pretty quiet, Grimm shows a lot of range. She certainly has her freak-folk weirdness on display in tracks like "The Dip" (a song that is woefully too short at just a minute and six seconds) and "Parplar". But on songs like "Be My Host" and "Fall On Your Knees", she sounds very folksy. And "Ride that Cyclone" is something else entirely. I'm honestly not sure how to describe that song. I'd like to call it psychedelic, but that word is meaningless. It manages to somehow be intense and relaxing, lush and focused at the same time. It's not necessarily my favorite song on the album, but to me it defines the album because it synthesizes so much I love about her music.

Grimm is joined by a fair amount of guest musicians, but she is always at the center of the songs on this album. Even though her vocal delivery is much more restrained than it was in her live performance, her voice still manages to do wonders. She excels at both the high notes, the low notes and the weird notes. Her lyrics are full of so much joy that you can't help but overlook or even enjoy some of the most awkward lines. She even sings about unicorns!

So I wrote this whole review thinking that this was her first album (because really, there aren't that many smaller labels than Young God), but apparently she's already released 2. I don't know why, but that kind of disappoints me. Although I am curious what they sound like....anyway, I'm giving up on this review.