Martha Wainwright : Come Home To Mama

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/marthawainwrightcomehometomama.jpg" alt="Martha Wainwright : Come Home To Mama" /><br /> Martha Wainwright returns with <i>Come Home To Mama</i>. ...
Martha Wainwright : Come Home To Mama
6.5 Cooperative
2012 

Martha Wainwright : Come Home To Mama Canadian folk-rock artist Martha Wainwright first turned heads with her aching honest and angst-ridden ode to her father, single “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole”, from her self-titled 2005 debut album.  Two albums later ­- following on from her 2008 I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too and her Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Record live album of lesser known Edith Piaf covers, which introduced the late great French singer to a new generation of younger fans – and Martha returns with her third album (of originals), Come Home To Mama, which is just as candid as that first head-turning single, though perhaps more poignant than angsty.

The album was written following a particularly difficult time for Wainwright; she’d just given birth to a premature baby in London when only a few months later her mother passed away due to cancer.  Not surprisingly, themes mortality, family and love lost weigh heavy, here.

First track opens with guitar scuzz, Martha’s cooing “Ah-ha, I’m Sorry, but” and a pummeling drum beat before exploding into an uplifting rock beat and powerful, soaring vocals.  Almost upbeat and certainly sounding strong and self-assured, it’s far from the heart-wrenching direction I was expecting, considering.

Second single “Can You Believe It” opens with the playful lyrics “I really like the make-up sex / It’s the only kind I ever get” and the song itself is the perfect balance between ‘warts and all’ sincerity and that unique brand of wry twisted pop that we’ve come to expect and love from Wainwright. 

Though it starts off quiet, “Some People” showcases Martha in full-force as she sighs: “I don’t want to be the one to tell you I don’t love the way I used to” before powerfully belting out, “I don’t mind the rain on my head.”  It’s full of sadness for a love now gone, but there’s also a feeling of strength and endurance that permeates through.

Towards the end, the album tones down with the slower paced and gently building “All Your Clothes“, which feels like an open conversation with her late mother.  The closing track is the heartfelt “(I Do Almost) Everything Wrong”, a song for her son: “There is something I want you to be, that is smarter than me,” which is hauntingly beautiful and reflective, the perfect closer to an introspective album that deals with the passing of life and love.

It’s midway track “Prosperina” – with its slow, low-key piano arpeggios, stunningly melancholy string arrangement and Wainwright’s powerful, restrained and beautifully haunting vocals “Come home To Mama”, from which the album takes its name – that really does it.  It’s the album’s standout track, not surprisingly the lead single too, but it also doesn’t really fit with the rest of the songwriting on the album.

This is because it’s actually a cover, written by Wainwright’s mother in what was to sadly become her swansong.  This knowledge renders the track all that more powerful and heartbreaking.

Come Home To Mama was recorded with Yuka Honda at Sean Lennon’s home recording studio and, as Wainwright has said, you can just imagine who would have recorded on the very same equipment in the past.

Her latest effort hits the perfect balance between introspective and melancholic, playful and wry, and also upbeat and empowering, which is no easy feat.

MP3 Stream: “Prosperina

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