Safer Here

With the roots that once firmly entrenched her in Jessamine shorn and withered, Dawn Smithson steps out on her own and creates a quiet, contemplative song cycle with Safer Here, a shocking but welcome transition from the clinical mayhem she created with Jessamine to the warm, isolated nature of home recording. And by the very nature and premise of home recording, the songs are skeletal and barren, stripped of everything and leaving only confessions and honest contemplation for the world to hear. The minimal amount of gloss and instrumentation only brings to the forefront the importance of every note and nuance found throughout. An impressive solo endeavor, but here's hoping that the world won't have to endure another six years of Smithson's isolationism before the arrival of a follow-up.