I recently received a very pleasant surprise in the mail - the sophomore record from Sonya Cotton called Out Of The Ocean. You may recognize her name if you checked out The National Lights’ fantastic debut record from earlier this year, The Dead Will Walk, Dear (still holding strong among my favorites of the year). Cotton sang harmony on Jacob Berns’ set of murder ballads disguised as lost love songs, and her beautiful voice was a highlight on that album.
On her solo material she rightly avoids the dire subject matter of her friend, instead singing about “birds, light, love, large bodies of water, and other mysterious things”. Her soulful, disarming voice shines throughout the record’s 11 tracks, and sounds at times like a cross between Natalie Merchant and a traditional Irish folk-singer. The tasteful arrangements and production of Chris Kiehne (also of The National Lights) are sparse and understated, leaving her vocals up front in the mix, and provide a lovely accompaniment to her bittersweet confessionals.
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