On 16th January, Courtney Marie Andrews’ ninth album – Valentine – was released. The 10 track, 36 minute record, is a progression from her previous two releases – Old Flowers and Loose Future. Whilst Keeper – the first single – has elements of those albums, the rest of the songs have a slightly different sound. The poetic lyrics are still obviously Courtney. The arrangement of the songs is beautiful, and the vast array of instruments used is impressive – sending this reviewer to the track notes to confirm what they were hearing.
Probably the strongest song on the album is Cons & Clowns. It is hard not to sing along with it and contains the lines “Paint your chest to the sound of Debussy, If only you could see the magic I see”. It is good to see a strange/unexpected rhyme like that.
There are hints of Kris Kristofferson’s Help Me Make it Through the Night about Little Picture of a Butterfly, of Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees in Best Friend and a Laurel Canyon vibe to Pendulum Swing. Whilst a few of the songs are short on lyrics, making them sound a little repeative on the first few listens, the use of the instruments and the vocalisation on them makes you forgive this pretty quickly.
Valentine is another good album from Courtney Marie Andrews, and one I would recommend to anyone who likes her previous work as well as fans of Americana/singer-songwriter music. It is be on this reviewers playlist for foreseeable future.
Courtney is playing UK and European dates later this month.
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