Small Death

Soon after the release of her fifth album, 2017s You Had Me at Goodbye, some of Samantha Crains touring plans were sidelined by injuries and other conditions exacerbated by not just one but a series of car accidents. At times bedridden with chronic pain, the Oklahoma singer/songwriter eventually found some relief in various therapies, both physical and mental in nature, as the experience dredged up some unhealed emotional wounds. As her condition improved, she began writing songs again, and the resulting album, A Small Death, carries the weight of certain life lessons and reckonings. The dreamy, mournful opening track, An Echo, examines her relationship with her mother, who spent a number of years away in prison. An arrangement of minimal acoustic guitar, bass, and drums expands to include pedal steel, vocal delay, and hazy harmony vocals by the one-minute mark. Tracks like Reunion (about her high school reunion), the accordion-accompanied Joey, and High Horse return to a spare, amplified folk as Crains bluesy lead vocal delivers lines like I know the weight of the big mistake/And I know the sound of a warm crescendo falling away. Balancing the more somber material are songs including Pastime, which takes the form of shimmery indie rock, and the two-minute closer Little Bits, an alt country-rocker that ends the album on a lively coping anthem. A set that honors and acknowledges more than wallows, A Small Death, like You Had Me at Goodbye before it, also includes a Choctaw-language track, this time the original song When We Remain. ~ Marcy Donelson