You Are Free
(Matador)
Release Date: 02/18/2003 12:00
In concert, hysterically shy Chan Marshall trembles at the edge of a nervous breakdown if someone in the crowd so much as lights a cigarette too loudly. Poring over lost loves and nightmares in a cathartic, injured Georgia twang, this singer-songwriter needs undivided attention its as if noise bruises her. Sadly, distracting over-embellishments dog her sixth album: On Good Woman and Speak for Me, blues guitars fumble down meandering paths until violins, piano flutters and backup vocals creep in sappily. While Shaking Paper and Maybe Not feature churning, minimal accompaniment, studio affectations and polished chords mess things up elsewhere: One-dimensionally decorative, they snap us out of Marshalls haunted depths like so many concertgoers chatting on cell phones a few feet from the stage.