Kim Taylor preview

Kim Taylor
Schubas, Chicago
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Singer-songwriter Kim Taylor’s second album, I Feel Like A Fading Light, is a desperate, clawing affair pitting venom against an ambient, reverbed soundtrack.

Taylor has a large number of iconic female artists to whom she’s indebted, though she scales down the obvious ones to a manageable homage on her latest effort. Owing much to the warmth of Beth Orton, but with strong hints of a left-behind Lucinda Williams or even Stevie Nicks, her strength is in her ambiguous execution. Whether panning inexact vocal overdubs in opposite speakers on the title track, swallowing and blurring lyrics on “Bruise,” or lamenting rising cynicism in “People,” she gets her point across without ever showing her cards. While some of the 13 arrangements feel a little like afterthoughts (“Everything Ends”), and the distance she puts between herself and the listener can generate apathy, the effort in making this not another heart-on-sleeve troubador is worth the fussing.

Taylor opens for Ron Sexsmith.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly