CD review – Chris Smither – Hundred Dollar Valentine

Chris Smither – Hundred Dollar Valentine
Homonculous Music/Mighty Albert, 2012
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
7/10

Like the dust kicked up from a tired horse’s hooves, Chris Smither’s weary voice croaks and smokily croons through Hundred Dollar Valentine’s Frontier Americana-soaked tunes.

There’s a ‘seen it all and it all ended badly for me’ melancholy to Smither’s lyrics – take ‘It ain’t what I lost that makes me sad/ It’s way I thought I had’ (What It Might Have Been) and ‘Don’t try to explain/ Try not to complain/ No-one really cares’ (Place In Line) as examples.

But whilst he seemingly ain’t the happy-go-luckiest of folks, there’s a fatalistic, wistful hope in amongst the dour acceptance that life is neither fair nor generous. Hope remains within reach, that maybe there is a little more to it all, and if not, then we still better make the best of what it is.

It’s this underlying glimmer that makes Hundred Dollar Valentine – and life – so alluring.

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisSmitherMusic

Category: CD Reviews