JOAN SHELLEY Vinilo y CD

Review: American indie folk artist Joan Shelley returns with Mood Ring, an emo-chromic new record. Celebrated for her soft and folky sound, Shelley's latest follows 2020's The Spur, which did develop one of her many MOs: to orchestrally augment Americana music. Yet it lacked much of the stylistic variation on display here on Mood Ring, which flaunts the breadth of her talent through chambered, variably galvanic songs. A curious formal exercise, too, the record is an LP but contains nothing on the B-side, sparing the listener the unseemly chore of having to flip it over. This is as much an "ahh"-inducing record as can be, then, with 'Fire Of The Morning' restoring the listener to health after, the lyrics attest, singeing our ears in an allegorical housefire; and 'I Look After You' concluding things on a blue, cushioned vocal ostinato.