Beth’s best songs are songs that are inspirational, without being preachy, thoughtful, and calming without over-sentimentality, and this is an album full of some of her finest compositions to date, and that is saying something.
‘Crazy Town’, was recorded before the world became such a small space, with many facing up to loss and loneliness. Songs like the title track, and ‘All around The World’, set a sonic landscape for declarations of hope, love, and better times ahead. Useful to remember those simpler times, for while the pandemic may have seemingly reduced the size of this crazy world to a town, the themes of positivity, survival, and moving forward should remain to the fore as they do on this wonderful album.
‘With Time’ has all the hallmarks of a standard, just waiting for it’s confirmation as such. It has all the necessary ingredients. Beautiful lingering melody., universal theme, immaculate vocal delivery
Beth has used her own encounters with tragedy as a well of inspiration for her most touching and affecting work. This is most pointedly expressed in the emotive ‘The Edge’, a piece written as a means to work through her own continuing journey to battle the sadness and sorrow following her husband’s death from cancer.
Ten of the twelve songs on offer are co-written, with such Music luminaries as Keb Mo, Graham Gouldman, Kimmie Rhodes, and Annie Roboff, which adds to the varied feel of an album that entrances and delights on each track.
Beth has never rocked harder than on the rambunctious word salad of ‘The Universe’, which zips along at a pace with a driving guitar delivered by Tom Bukovac. There’s fun to be had too in the (tongue in cheek?) ‘Put a Woman in Charge’, co-written with the great Keb Mo, and John Lewis Parker, although the message may have been somewhat undermined on the evidence of Liz Truss as Prime Minister on this side of the pond!
Despite being recorded before the pandemic, the songs here prove strangely prophetic, and on the money. Beth writes in the liner notes:
As we roll forward, I don’t think we can get back to normal, but we can find our hearts in taking care of each other, and yes even find humour, like change in the little pockets of our reality, just enough to get an ice cream cone or a ridge on the Ferris wheel.
The past is gone, and we remember those lost with love, but we face the future with hope. It’s been a weird few years, and ‘Crazy Town’ is a celebration of having come through it, and a splendid signpost to the future.