I know there's a place for this sort of self-satisfied, not-too-alt-country schmaltz-- maybe some Greenpoint dive where young newlyweds go after watching "Last Call With Carson Daly", or some hip free-trade coffeeshop in San Diego with so much tracklighting you can see the members of Liz Janes' band smiling and nodding at each other whenever she "really starts getting into it"-- but I'm pretty sure this place isn't for me just yet.
Poison & Snakes is Janes' second album, and it's pretty much everything you'd expect from a seasoned singer, songwriter, and performer who may very well refer to herself as a "seasoned singer, songwriter, and performer". Janes can sing pretty well, and she writes decent enough songs, but she knows both of these things, and Poison & Snakes sounds a little too house proud.
Technically, the album's "about" the American West, and Janes' country doo-wop twang complements her more relaxed lovey-dovey numbers nicely enough, as on the let-you-down-easy lullaby "Wonderkiller", the potsy-panny, sometimes throaty "Deep Sea Diver", and the album's title track, for which Fifel Goes West And Plays The Album's Token Harmonica Solo.
Elsewhere, I don't know, it's all just too much. Janes goes for bonsai countrified punk on "Streetlight", but the whole thing comes out sounding like a Burger King commercial. "Sets To Cleaning" is unhinged and rickety, but not without the drummer's most transparent efforts to sound like he's completely autistic. The canned piano-and-kiddie-vox opener of "Desert" kicks up just enough post-rock dirt for the noodling to hit the seven-minute mark, but by the end the song still has nothing to say for itself. "Go Between" also sounds like a Burger King commercial, but in fairness, there are some scenes from Dances With Wolves it reminds me of as well.
I try not to get wrapped up in the folk authenticity or "Who's faking the folk?" debates about tradition, eclecticism, and so forth. Really, my biggest concern is whether an album makes me feel old, and this one definitely does. Poison & Snakes is quality but adult-contemporary, a fine piece of Waterford crystal or Cat's Meow memorabilia that I can't yet appreciate-- if I'll ever want to.
