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Rumination on life and love
In 2001, Mary Chapin Carpenter abandoned her sassy country twang to release time* sex* love, a brooding folk album filled with poignant musings and prayers for inner peace. After nine years and two albums of near-formulaic somber meditations, Carpenter is still trudging down that grueling path.
Reprising her well-worn role as a pensive, wistful artist, Carpenter’s latest is a pastiche of her respectable and nakedly honest earlier work. The Age of Miracles is almost laughably despondent, its few half-hearted attempts at pluck (“I Put My Ring Back On,” “What You Look For”) obscured by morose ballads, where “valleys of sorrow and tears” and “oceans of longing and years” blemish the lyrical landscape. Carpenter’s weepy soul-searching makes The Age of Miracles feel like a cheap copy of the genuine introspection that made her previous records so intriguing.
Mary Chapin Carpenter
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One of the best albums of the year - subtle, but deep, wise and sincere. And if you're not moved by the title track, something's wrong with you.
Don't get all the negative reviews for this. One I read, didn't like it 'cause it wasn't similar *enough* to past albums. You think it's too similar and call it a pastiche. Can't win, I guess.
To me it sounds like an album made by someone with years of experience, which she graciously and gracefully shares. But made primarily for herself, not to please others. I respect that. I just hope she doesn't read all the negative reviews and start doubting herself. I feel very protective of the soul capable of an album like this one.
P.S. Giving this and Rooney's new album the same rating of 3.6 is just ridiculous. MCC's superior lyrics *alone* are enough to elevate it beyond Rooney's which are clunky and cringe-inducing.