"Times Like These" by Sara Marlowe

a Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

At first I thought her voice sounded almost childish, but it must have been because of something I had been listening to before. By the second song it sounded normal to me.

I would call this Folk but with more lush instrumentation. She plays guitar but there are also a bevy of other instruments on the recording, including keys, flute, cello and more.

On the surface, it sounds like many other folk recordings, but it is unique. Sara is political, there's no getting around this. I reviewed her previous CD, "World to Win" in 2002 http://www.collectedsounds.com/cdreviews/worldtowin.html I liked it, but then again, she's "preachin' to the choir" with me. If you are a right-winger, this will probably just piss you off, but that's good…as long as you listen! :)

She has a way of expressing her beliefs without being preachy or aggressive (like Ani DiFranco tends to do, I'm afraid Ani scares people off sometimes).

The songs are nice to listen to even if you ignore the lyrics (but please don't).

"Maybe if I just tried a little harder
Maybe if I didn't complain
Maybe if I closed my eyes and blindly played along
Then maybe I could believe there's nothing wrong."

Indeed.

Posted on December 16, 2003

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