Jennifer Greer’s fourth album, Hey Tide, is an assemblage of artful, colorful songs. Featuring Greer’s honeyed voice and lively piano melodies, these tunes flow in a variety of currents, some subtle, some intense, all infused with her often spellbinding talent.
Opening with “Say What You Want,” Greer displays a flair for understated piano drama. She makes the listener feel something is imminent with a clever use of her low end notes. The dark foreboding in her piano tinkling is equally matched by her silky smooth vocal. Greer packs an emotional wallop with an unforced approach at the microphone, unfurling a world of emotions as she confronts her partner about his true intentions.
“All The People” finds Greer tapping out a jaunty piano melody. She coats her melodic line with her honeyed vocal glide. Contrasting her voice’s slide with the piano’s bounce in its step keeps the song very engaging. The listener gets a sense that Greer is walking them through a gallery of “all these people” she sings of. There is also a balladry power here too, something special that makes the song feel lifted, as the song becomes an anthem without even trying to.
Greer coos her way into “Crater,” her CD’s obvious radio hit, with a graceful cool. She’s soon got the listener by the ear with her haunting vocal and theme. Her album’s guest guitarist, Duke Levine, injects a sense of fury with his bossy, menacing chord progression. Bassist Jon Evans and drummer Dave Mattacks drive it all unstoppably forward with their entrenched rhythm section. All of the players create a dramatic tension while Greer pulls the listener in further with a gripping chorus. She also heightens the drama with classically inspired piano work.
It‘s amazing how well Greer succeeds at creating a myriad of emotions in her works. “Maple Tree” pokes its head into a quieter drama, a classy, moody dance of piano notes that Greer wraps her voice around with gentle sweetness. She creates a fine sense of something forlorn but inevitable in the backdrop, plying subtle nuances in her lower keyboard notes. Singing sweetly over this sense of something being not quite right in her world keeps the listener entranced with her drama while making its inevitability more intense.
“Mother Lode” looms like a monster with low end notes coming from piano and bass guitar. Levine’s grinding guitar progression lurches forward like someone who means business. After establishing this darkened color and tone, Greer applies a more assertive vocal approach, feisty and sultry. She’s been through the wall of flames and emerges from hell with a gentler disposition. Then, she sounds like a world weary mama who can balance all that the world throws at her.
“Pull Me” is a solid voice and piano tune. Greer’s vocal is full of character and her piano notes are full of feeling, making it impossible to ignore the sonic and emotive thrust. Her voice spirals upwards with majestic ease while she taps out her impeccably colorful piano notes. Meanwhile, Levine presses out some subtle phrases that embroider Greer’s wide open emotions and far ranging sound. She is subtle and powerful at once here.
Title track “Hey Tide” is a sly dance of voice and piano. Greer manages to swish around her dark notes until the listener wonders what intense drama will unfold. Her cooing chorus engages with the darkness in her voice while Mattacks keeps perfect time with his sticks hitting the drum rims. Add in some Levine guitar power, and this song pulls the listener into a tide of overwhelming feeling and complicated human circumstance. One can feel the clock running out as the singer tries to overcome her situation before this song kaliediscopes into a cascade of self-scattering notes.
“Pirate Ship” begins with a haunting piano melody created by an interval of dark, rapid notes and a considerately hushed vocal. Greer sustains a vocal note and the listener sinks into the depth of this number. Contemplating the end of a relationship, Greer compares it to someone close being abducted by pirates. It amazes how her voice conjures much beauty while her verses conjure a dark human scenario.
“Wintered Over” continues Greer’s winning streak, offering another song of darkness, haunting possibilities, and inevitable consequences, all conjured with her subtle slippage into her low end notes. Her beautiful voice, loaded with possibilities in its range and power, takes the listener into a personal place with a little help from piano intervals, swinging from hip swagger into cold finality.
Greer closes out her album with “New Ground,” a balladry piano number that she infuses with life using only the subtlest of techniques. Her voice does a lot with little, sustaining the emotion in this number while sustaining and her cooing her best vocal moment. It’s a treat for the ears to hear her soft, sweet voice running alongside her peppy, emotive keyboard notes.
Greer has accomplished a lot on this fourth album. She uses subtle, sophisticated musical and vocal techniques to create music that is as gripping and serious as it is entertaining. Hey Tide has some potential radio hits and will likely be the album Greer will be best known for in the coming years.
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