Album Review: Jill Andrews, ‘Thirties’
Raise your hand if you thought your life would look different at whatever age you happen to currently be? It’s an endemic condition. Maybe it’s from the movies that we watch as kids. Maybe it’s from the myths that we portray on social media. Whatever the cause, dang near no one is who they thought they’d be at this particular moment.
That’s the issue beating at the heart of Thirties, the new release from singer/songwriter Jill Andrews. Like most everyone else, she held fast to the idea that being an adult somehow meant arriving at a moment in life when everything comes together — the kids, the career, and the love. For Andrews, it did, then it didn’t. Or, maybe, it didn’t, then it did, then it still might because life is a moving target that comes at you fast.
Through it all, Andrews has had her songs through which to sort her emotions and her voice — one of the most pristine in the game — through which to express them. Co-produced by Andrews and Lucas Morton, Thirties captures it all in the most beautiful of fashions, though long-time fans will recognize that Thirties is more akin, sonically, to Hush Kids than The War Inside. It’s also not that far from the stunning mark hit by Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour.
Any which way it’s packaged, there’s a steady tenderness to everything Andrews does, even as it occasionally veers into the most delicate of defiance in the face of various circumstances. Similarly, even on songs in which she approaches her own heartbreak, you can all but feel the fact that her life’s trials and tribulations are exponentially heavier because kids are involved and, like most mothers, she will protect them at all costs.
Acoustic-based album opener “Sorry Now” runs that entire gamut in just over three minutes, from doubt and disappointment to resignation and rising again, while “The Party” stays put on the gorgeously sparse side of the line, letting “Gimme the Beat Back” have all the funky fun. As things move along, Andrews manages to roll from the rock edge of “Back Together” to the disco beat of “My Own Way” to the swelling pop-rock of “The Kids Are Growing Up” to the soft-touch balladry of “Wherever I End Up” without ever missing a step. And such is the journey of a life.
Thirties is available now at Apple Music and Amazon.
Upcoming tour dates
MAR 27 FRI
Live Stream: ‘Thirties’ Release Show
Nashville, TN, United States ** WATCH HERE**
JUN 11 THU
Southgate House
Newport, KY, United States
JUN 12 FRI
Tonic Room
Chicago, IL, United States
JUN 13 SAT
Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
Cleveland, OH, United States
JUN 14 SUN
Rumba Cafe
Columbus, OH, United States
JUN 26 FRI
The Willow Tree Coffeehouse & Music Room
Johnson City, TN, United States
JUN 27 SAT
The Willow Tree Coffeehouse & Music Room
Johnson City, TN, United States
JUN 28 SUN
Songbirds North
Chattanooga, TN, United States
JUL 19 SUN
AMP by Strathmore
North Bethesda, MD, United States
JUL 22 WED
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY, United States
JUL 23 THU
Portsmouth Book & Bar
Portsmouth, NH, United States
JUL 26 SUN
The Locks at Sona
Philadelphia County, PA, United States
JUL 29 WED
Mercy Lounge
Nashville, TN, United States
JUL 30 THU
Cat’s Cradle
Carrboro, NC, United States
JUL 31 FRI
The Grey Eagle
Asheville, NC, United States
AUG 29 SAT
Radio Room
Greenville, SC, United States
AUG 30 SUN
Eddie’s Attic
Decatur, GA, United States
SEP 12 SAT
Moon River Music Festival
Chattanooga, TN, United States
SEP 13 SUN
Moon River Music Festival
Chattanooga, TN, United States
