Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream

'There's no ear candy this time,' she says.

Every Patty Griffin album offers, often simultaneously, beauty and challenge. The depth of her lyric writing and the intensity of her singing have never relented.

At times here, Griffin sounds like one of her great influences, James Baldwin, never more so than on the opening track,

In part, that's because she decided on this album she would "edit less and return to some basic things where I started." Prominent among these: black gospel music. But that's only one feel on the record. The backing vocals of Emmylou Harris, producer Craig Ross, and Buddy and Julie Miller add Americana flavor.

One of Patty Griffin's great subjects is feeling out of place. In the same lyric where she wonders if she's ever going to make it home, she makes a promise that lies at the heart of this record:

If you break down, I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you
I'll stay by you when it don't come easy
When it don't come easy

That's not ear candy. It's soul food.

Listen to samples:

• Love Throw A Line
• Cold As It Gets
• Kite Song
• Standing
• Useless Desires
• Top Of The World
• Rowing Song
• When It Don't Come Easy
• Florida
• Mother Of God
• Icicles