Shelby Lynne- Consequences of the Crown
Label: Monument
Producers: Shelby Lynne, Karen Fairchild, Ashley Monroe
Don’t be fooled by the fact that Shelby Lynne’s nineteenth studio recording, Consequences of the Crown, stands as the first album she’s created in Nashville in nearly three decades. Neither this nor the additional detail that she co-produced it with Ashley Monroe and Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild are indicators that the project finds Lynne returning to anything resembling the contemporary country path that she floundered within for the bulk of the 90s. Consequences is easily one of the headiest and most dense outings of her expansive career, fully committed to the unique brand of alt-soul that she has established for herself since her overdue breakthrough with the 1999 classic, I Am Shelby Lynne. It’s a gorgeously brooding and mysterious exploration of the darkest corners of one’s heart and soul. It’s a complex recording that requires repetitive and focused spins to truly grasp and appreciate the depth of the music presented. Those projects also usually make for a serious music listener’s most rewarding discoveries, and Consequences lives up to that excellence on multiple, marvelous occasions. Lynne’s voice remains a tour de force, defined by a rare combination of silky smooth soul and gravely, gutting grit. As ever before, she is as equally masterful at powerhouse moments like “Over and Over” as she is on stripped, subdued offerings like “Truth We Know” and “Gone To Bed”, which are as much spoken-word poetry as singing showcases (the latter of which gloriously interpolates Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Alfie”). Her additional years have certainly roughened the edges of her pristine pipes in subtle fashion, but she only allows that beautifully natural evolution to further heighten the gravitas in her deliveries. They make all of the romantic strife and emotional baggage excavated within these songs all the more momentous. Lynne’s willingness to collaborate with younger peers like Fairchild and Monroe also serves her well throughout the album. In addition to providing production collaboration, the pair appear on a large majority of the songwriting credits as well as harmony vocals. The three prove to be a magnetic force on all fronts, adding revitalizing nuances (not that they were necessarily needed) to Lynne’s compositional perspective, as well as the sensational vocal standards of her catalog. There’s little doubt that Fairchild and Monroe (as well as the album’s expanded roster of other contributors from their generation, including Angaleena Presley, Jay Joyce, Waylon Payne and Carter Faith) will regard their inclusion here as highlights within their own career. It’s far past time that Lynne be given some flowers for her creative impact across the past quarter-century; her influence may have been rarely cited heretofore, but it has most certainly been felt. That reach should only extend with Consequences of the Crown, another triumph in the catalog of Shelby Lynne, and one of this year’s true masterworks.
Track Listing:
- “Truth We Know” (Shelby Lynne, Ashley Monroe)
- “Consequences” (Lynne, Karen Fairchild, Monroe)
- “Butterfly” (Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe)
- “But I Ain’t” (Lynne, Monroe, Jay Joyce, Ben Chapman, Dorothy Overstreet, Meg McRee)
- “Shattered” (Lynne, Monroe, Carter Faith)
- “Gone to Bed” (Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe, Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
- “Clouds” (Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe)
- “Regular Man” (Lynne)
- “Good Morning Mountain” (Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe, Jedd Hughes)
- “Dear God” (Lynne, Monroe)
- “Keep the Light On” (Lynne, Monroe, Angaleena Presley, Waylon Payne)
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