![]() Her rock and roll upbringing has clearly made an impact – watch the I Love LA music video to see her in Bowie-esque get-up with the super-slight frame, serpentine moves and kohl-smudged stare to match. Her father is a drummer and as a baby she hung out with one of her photographer mother's famous subjects, Elliott Smith. Singer Arrow de Wilde was probably destined to front a rock band. Not every grand plan pays off – the Latin-pop of Hold Me Tight Or Don't sounds like an emo band at karaoke – but considering Fall Out Boy scrapped much of the record late last year, for the most part Mania feels worth the wait. I Did it Again hook and lyric for a broody electro-pop highlight. The album runs the gamut from tropical-pop on Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) to the slow-burning Young and Menace, which cheekily lifts the Britney Spears Oops!. Elsewhere the razor-sharp The Last of the Real Ones, featuring a visceral vocal performance from dynamic frontman Patrick Stump, delivers the heart and soul their last opus lacked. Here their pop hooks are boosted by Sia, who co-wrote the Sia-like standout Champion. On Mania they continue along the genre-juggling path with a denser but punchier set. While Fall Out Boy bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz insists this is the band wiping the slate clean and stepping away from their emo roots, the US quartet have really done this for a while – from their pre-hiatus album Folie a Deux in 2008 and onto 2013's Save Rock and Roll and American Beauty/American Psycho two years later. This is a true rarity: 10 flawless performances. Gasp at the melancholy beauty of Cold Waves and the country winsomeness of Make You My Own. But it is Freeman's own compositions – every one shot through with sweet harmonies, thoughtful lyrics and set against tasteful understated arrangements – that make the album so special. This is her second album (both produced by Thompson's son, Teddy) and, while dominated by her own compositions, it includes a cute, a capella nod to backwoods humour with Em and Zorry's Sneakin' Bitin' Dog written by her grandfather (so there really are deep trad roots in the family), a charming piece of bluegrass gospel Over There, and a pulsating, countrified reading of Thompson's classic I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight. Dori Freeman brings a voice of sublime sweetness and persuasive emotional depth to a collection of songs mixing country ballads with English electric folk a la Richard Thompson, Appalachian humour and some of the most perfect singer/songwriter compositions this side of musical heaven. This is about as good as contemporary American folk (that style of music steeped in country, gospel and bluegrass) gets.
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