Wilkinsons' "Home" Worth Visiting
T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 05/08/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Prime Cuts: I Wish It Would Rain, Fast Car, Closets
Daddy knows best. Such a proverbial adage has a ring of truth when it comes to the Wilkinsons' new disc "Home." Integral to the family-trio's success is that father Steve Wilkinson, who co-produced the CD and co-wrote 11 songs, knows the type of songs that would fit his daughter and the major lead vocalist, Amanda Wilkinson. Never divorced from the youthful experiential glee and the coming-of-age life-questioning staidness, these songs are juste milieu for the 25-year old Amanda. However, lest daddy steals away the laurels, Amanda Wilkinson herself has one of the most distinctive voices in the business--one that is piercing enough to galvanize the soul yet feisty enough to command attention. Already stirring quite a sensation from their reality TV show "The Wilkinsons," such success ought to catapult this new CD beyond their country-music confines to further exposure.
Perhaps in an effort to embrace a larger audience, Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" is daubed with a Hilary-Duff drumbeat over a popish backing. Nevertheless, this carefree anthem of two dreamy-eyed kids eloping to start life on their own gets support from Amanda Wilkinson's fulgid vocals. Current single "Papa Come Quick," continues the same theme of teenage emancipation, this time told with a more cautious forethought over a bluesy stripped-down melody. Moving away from the theme of running away to more grown-up subject matters, `Trees," an infectious pop-country sonic magnet, is a philosophical musing of missed opportunities drawn from various life situations. While the album's most country and arguably the best track is the fiddle-accompanied ballad "I Wish It Would Rain." A doleful lament where an emotionally nocturnal Amanda Wilkinson wished the weather would share in her heartbreak.
Yet, Amanda Wilkinson does bounce back with plenty of attitude on the high-octane "Closets." Refusing to be an "old dusty Beatles records" stored up in a closet, Amanda bristly voices her displeasure of her boyfriend's tepidness. While Tony Haselden's "Nobody's Died" has a bluesy zinger that is hard to resist. Brother Tyler gets only one solo cut this time. In the midtempo "Dying to Start Living," though he tries to be on top of the game, he just does not have the verve of his older sister. When the siblings sing together the title cut, Tyler seems to struggle from being over-shadow by Amanda's larger-than-life vocals. Dad Steve Wilkinson gets two cuts; the best of the couple is the honky-tonk beer-drinking "Six Pack." The rustic sounds of its fiddles and steel of "Six Pack" gives this CD a healthy traditional swing.
Like their previous hits such as "26 cents" and "LA," this collection of 14 songs paint the portrait of growing up, romance, family and heartbreak with characters and drama that populate American locales. Amanda's vibrant performance and Steve's perceptive songs often burst the seams of the heart with emotions that are so gushingly raw and yet so grounded in reality that one cannot help but nod in agreement or weep a tear of identification. All of these work because as a family they know have that added insight into each other's heart; and as they say blood is always thicker than water."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1