On August 4, St. Louis-based vocalist and guitarist Beth Bombara releases her fifth full-length It All Goes Up, and like her prior four, it’s out on vinyl (also CD and digital), this time through Black Mesa Records. Her approach is rootsy with recurrent touches of twang, but also navigates singer-songwriter territory with aplomb. Bombara’s music is largely conventional, but is never saccharine, and if not a stylistic ground breaker, the record is built upon sturdy songs that are sung with a sturdier voice. Best of all, her work grows with repeated listens.
It All Goes Up’s opener “Moment” features immediate pedal steel twang along with Bombara’s countryish drawl, but there’s also a little mellotron in the track, an addition that, while subtly integrated, helps establish a disinclination for the calculatedly retro. More importantly, “Moment” is a solid song unfurling with the confidence of an experienced performer.
Just as quickly, “Lonely Walls” redirects toward the Lucinda Williams zone, but without faltering into the imitative as the cut delivers some distinctive, lightly psych-tinged guitar soloing. And It All Goes Up is very much a guitar album; along with keys, Bombara plays electric, acoustic, and classical guitar, as the instrument is handled by four other contributors.
“Everything I Wanted” pulls a sweet trick, starting out in a something of a stripped-down pop country mode before surging into a Christine McVie-like place on the choruses. The cut pairs well with “Get On,” which exudes some country-rock flavor but with an instrumental passage that glides upward and outward like a ’70s rock radio nugget.
Keeping it in a ’70s-ish framework, “Carry the Weight” journeys into singer-songwriter territory, but with backbone and depth of instrumentation, as there’s some subtly woozy fiddle action and more of that mellotron. But then comes “Curious and Free,” with its vocal and acoustic strum tapping into the Americana vein and with fiddle deepening the atmosphere. But it’s the track’s emotional intensity that really makes it worthwhile (standing out from the timidity of too much contempo Americana stuff).
Even better is “Give Me a Reason,” its raw rock edge nodding back to ’90 Alt-indie but without any bad connotations, as the squalling guitar solo is quite welcome. Shifting gears, “Electricity” begins with just Bombara’s vocal and strummed acoustic but then quickly injects a full band thrust that’s urgency is augmented with some fine guitar explorations.
“What You Want to Hear” springs from the singer-songwriter foundation and with a country twist in Bombara’s vocal high notes as the playing is reminiscent of a gang of session pros. The playing is consistently sharp throughout the record, and so it is in closer “Fade,” though the set’s greatest strengths are Bombara’s songs and the warmth of her singing. It’s appropriate that the last sound heard on It All Goes Up is a beating heart.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
