A lot has happened in the two years since Alela Diane released her breakout album, the simultaneously imaginative and earthy To Be Still. Among other things, she married her bass player-turned-guitarist, Tom Bevitori, and saw her touring band gel into something a bit more prominent and permanent-- namely, Wild Divine, which includes Bevitori, guitarist Tom Menig (Diane's father), bass player Jonas Haskins, and drummer Jason Merculief. Her third album reflects these developments in its more robust, full-band sound as well as in the writing credits she shares with her husband and father. Musically, Diane sounds more settled on these songs, with the road-tested band bolstering her distinctive vocals and helping to mold her songwriting into slightly more dynamic shapes.
In other words, those pesky comparisons to old friend Joanna Newsom no longer apply. Diane trades fraught freak folk for dusty country-rock that recalls the rough-and-tumble outlaw hits of Jessi Colter and Rita Coolidge, if they were backed by the Flying Burrito Brothers. Like those two singers, there's something both slick and scuffed up about Diane's vocals; rather than otherworldly, she sounds deeply rooted in our own world, with a soulful delivery that illuminates the galloping "White Horse" and opener "To Begin". "Heartless Highway" (with its subtle reference to 1970s underground Nashville documentary Heartworn Highways) is a lonely tour song written in Germany, and while there are literally hundreds of songs about this subject, Diane imbues it with a tough-minded homesickness, as if she's working through the heartache to get to the next show.
Lyrically, Diane can be just as startling as ever, employing a stream-of-conscious style that bends toward unexpected details or strange turns of phrase. "Amidst the gold, there is dust in every heart," she sings on "Of Many Colors", which is, oddly enough, an ode to her new husband. Her songwriting hasn't lost any of its barbs, so that when she makes a fanfare of the words "There is good, there is still good" on closer "Rising Greatness", it resonates all the more forcefully.
Whether navigating the rocky rapids of "White Horse" or decorating "The Wind" with pedal steel teardrops and mandolin trills, Wild Divine craft agile arrangements that echo British folk music and American roots. If they lapse into gentle lite-folk anonymity at times, it's because they're more interested in supporting Diane's vocals than in living up to their name. That's a wise strategy, as Diane's appeal is based squarely on her husk-dry voice delivering those thorny lyrics, but this self-titled album gives the impression that they're constantly aware of holding back. Such restraint is ultimately unwarranted: Diane is a strong enough presence as a singer and as a songwriter that she can more than hold her own.
