The solo project by former Weepies member Deb Talan will surely be classified as “folk” music, and it certainly is light and insightful, driven by acoustic guitar, but manoman is this a powerful record. but instead of punching you in the face with riffs or earworming through your skull like traditional pop music, “Lucky Girl” is content to hit you with song after song of deeply personal and profound craft. Yeah, craft. Every song is painted perfectly, without a wasted note or lyric. They stay just as long as they need to, and leave you contemplative.

What a wonder of an album!

Ms. Talan took 13 years between solo records, and in the interim she was cured of breast cancer, and her maturity shows in every cut. This is not an “old” record in the sense that she still sounds like a twentysomething vocally–and has all the range of her best work with her husband in The Weepies–but it is wise.

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