When Elisabeth Maurus aka Lissie released her debut EP, Why You Runnin', in fall 2009, it seemed a new voice was emerging in indie folk. After years of playing around Los Angeles and performing guest vocalist duties for house artist Morgan Page, Lissie was gaining ground as a recording artist, introducing herself online with acoustic video performances of understated folk songs, including a cover of Hank Williams' "Wedding Bells". Her voice stood out more than the actual songs: at times raspy and at others full and precise, like Grace Slick or Neko Case. After the EP's release, Maurus switched to the electric guitar and gathered a backing band.
Catching a Tiger, her debut LP, is dominated by an odd mix of producer-writers including Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Modest Mouse), Band of Horses bassist Billy Reynolds, and British session guitarist and producer Julian Emery. There are numerous other composers involved in the album, including singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt (for the leaden piano ballad "Oh Mississippi"), but Maurus wrote or co-wrote every track. Her collaborators seem to have led Maurus down the garden path, transforming some promising unreleased tracks into bland songs sapped of atmosphere and personality. The narratives follow suit: The clear singles feature jilted-teenager juvenilia and cheesy tales of rebellion, while the tracks with Lissie's stamp firmly on them feature mature, creative lyrical twists on familiar ideas, deeply rooted in folk.
In other words, the standouts on Tiger were either written entirely by Maurus or co-written with more synergistic contributors like Craig Dodds (Sugababes, Amy Winehouse) and Angelo Petraglia (the so-called fifth member of Kings of Leon). These songs capture a physical environment as well as an emotional one; geography and psychology feel inseparable. "Record Collector", co-written by Dodds, uses unobvious words ("hue" instead of "color"); wry, poetic narration grounded in nature ("Everywhere I went/ There I was/ With a choir of bees/ They were all abuzz/ Oh my, how amusing"); and rhyming that isn't forced or bland. In the process, Lissie whoops and darts all over the scale, showing off considerable vocal range and expressiveness.
But Lissie's conversion to the electric guitar starts to seem calculated once you hear King and Emery's contributions. A couple of them-- "Cuckoo", "Loosen the Knot"-- are fun enough, and the stories feel authentically Lissie's, but they pale in comparison to her own compositions. Wanting to avoid the woman-and-acoustic-guitar cliché is understandable, but the work has veered too far in the other direction, best exemplified on "When I'm Alone". When it debuted as a live performance video earlier this year, it seemed like Lissie's strongest song to date. On the album, it's thin and unmemorable. The guitars, previously bold and howling, are now pushed down into the mix as part of the rhythm section. Lissie's voice is haunting as always, but the band doesn't match this tone, and as a result it no longer sounds like Lissie's song. Hopefully these missteps aren't enough to put people off, because Lissie is still a significant new voice. Let's hope she listens to it more in the future.
