Michelle Shocked – Soul of My Soul – Album Review
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Michelle Shocked – Soul of My Soul
“Love and hate coexist uneasily in life, but in song they can spawn revelatory artistry. Such is the case with Michelle Shocked’s 13th album, which navigates deftly between those opposing emotions. On the “love” side, Shocked is celebrating her partner, artist David Willardson, with such cuts as the acoustic confessional “True Story” and the twangy, Bonnie Raitt-like “Love’s Song.” For the angry part of the equation, anthemic roots-rocker “Ballad of the Battle of the Ballot and the Bullet Part 1: Ugly Americans” delivers an uncompromising indictment of the past eight years. There’s also “Other People,” deceptively easygoing and lyrically deceptive, too: It’s a breakup song detailing a citizen re-examining her relationship with her country. “Soul of My Soul” rarely settles for a middle ground, and in the music, performed almost exclusively by Shocked and producer Devin Powers, one hears an urgency to the arrangements that serves the urgency in Shocked’s voice.â€
