Hiss Golden Messenger Makes One Of 2016’s Finest With ‘Heart Like a Levee’

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hissgoldenIf, like me, you were one of the devout followers of Hiss Golden Messenger’s 2014 record Lateness of Dancers, one of the year’s best, than you’ve likely been waiting for its follow up with bated breath. And with the Durham, North Carolina band’s new release Heart Like a Levee, M.C. Taylor has not let us down. Expanding upon musical aesthetics he only lightly explored last time around, and continuing to mine the many complexities of human experience and inner turmoil, Taylor and his stellar band have offered up something rich and compelling.

Though it may seem, at first listen to some of the band’s earlier stuff, Taylor has a voice suited best for quiet folk music, Heart Like a Levee shows how dynamic an artist he really is. As a vocalist, he possesses a natural soulful tone, soft and raspy and full of raw emotion. Songs like the booty-shaker “Tell Her I’m Just Dancing”, and the simmering “Like a Mirror Loves a Hammer” feature Taylor going full throttle toward a more soul, R&B sound, and boy does it work for him. Both are amped up with warm, fuzzy saxophone and silky harmonies, and the former starts off tricking you into thinking it has a funk lean before erupting into a soaring pop song with a melody that floats on air.

Taylor’s same Southern, almost folkloric sense of place is here, woven in subtly, but mostly, Heart Like a Levee is his ode to the human spirit. Doubt plagues him on the album’s title track, in which he asks, “Do you hate me honey/As much as I hate myself?” There’s so much pain in this song, it may make you weep. Taylor grapples with leaving his family to go out on the road, feeling uncertain about where he stands as father, husband, and artist, and his greater purpose in life. Keyboard tickles the melody towards the end, as it build and builds, giving the song even more emotional weight.

That earthy, sun-drenched guitar-led arrangement Taylor and his band do so well is at its best with album opener “Biloxi”. “It’s hard lord/Lord it’s hard/yeah everybody in the whole damn place/Just gotta have a good time,” he sings, giving us those same good vibes we got on tunes like “Saturday’s Song” and “Drum”. There must be something in the water down in North Carolina, because Hiss Golden Messenger has truly mastered good vibes (also see: HGM’s multi-talented Phil Cook’s own band).

“Happy Day (Sister My Sister)” and “Say It Like You Mean It” envelop us like a loving hug, reminding us that when we listen to Hiss Golden Messenger, we feel our souls enriched. There’s something hopeful in the music this band creates together. Every detail, from the little inflections in Taylor’s voice to the layered, multi-instrumental arrangements in which a simple keyboard note or an unexpected hazy saxophone riff have the power to change your mood and make you feel something more deeply, makes us grateful to have this record, and these artists, in our lives.

 

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