Ana Egge – Bad Blood
Ammal
Rolling Stone: 3.5 star rating
You can’t say this North Dakota-raised singer-songwriter doesn’t have range. Her 2007 Lazy Days, a breezy concept LP about idleness, covered Arcade Fire and the Kinks. Her latest, a team-up with producer Steve Earle, is folk-rock storytelling stained red and flush with madness. “Blood on the floor,” she sings sweetly on “Evil,” a standout on a set that’s as upbeat musically as it is chilling lyrically. Egge rocks harder than usual on “Driving With No Hands” and works her sublime lower-register on the Richard Thompson-flavored “Shadow Fall.” And her sprightly reading of Charlie Rich’s kiss-off “There Won’t Be Anymore” places her tuneful noir in a long American tradition of depressing feel-good music. Thank the Puritans.