Sarah Harmer All Of Our Names (Universal) Rating: NNNN
Rating: NNNN
Prompting her manager to dub the disc “Harmer’s heroin album,” Sarah Harmer’s gorgeous follow-up to 2000’s breakout You Were Here is a mournful shiver of a record. Instead of optimism and jaunty pop hooks, there’s a mature, bittersweet reflectiveness that echoes through Harmer’s off-kilter melodies, haunted lyrics and shuddering, halting delivery. Expertly produced in a home studio with mixmaster partner Marty Kinack, All Of Our Names has a threadbare-sweater quality, a delicate intimacy well suited to the impressionistic Kingston country imagery and sad stories of love lost. It’s cohesive without seeming monotonous, and several tracks – anti-war plea Dandelions In Bullet Holes and the lovely live standby Came On Lion – are among the best she’s written.
