Karma County - Headland (Album)
‘Comprehensive’ is one way to describe this 36 track, double disc Karma County collection. The most restrained cover art of theirs yet, though it points to hours of tunes amid retrospective liner notes and photos, along with detailed track info and matching discography. It’s also nice to see a genuinely earned (decade-plus / six albums) ‘best of’ released whilst the artist not only remains unchanged in lineup but still actively touring and recording. So even if the dulcet tone of KC’s music bores you to tears, you gotta respect their longevity.
They haven’t left much to spare here, apart from the freakishly deep baroque vocal of 2001’s Serendipity and a copy of at least some lyrics, including the chest-beating parochial “this is my headland… here comes Summer” on The Sea Is ASiren and “rain on sugar cane” from Kiss Me, both smart casual reminders of KC’s earthy national mindset.
Disc one is predominantly their A-sides whereby Secret Country is the most noted, elsewhere lead vocalist Brendan Gallagher strides less travelled higher ground astutely on Lasso and the aforementioned Kiss Me and another step outside the box comes via The Sea is… Meanwhile debut single Postcard returns triumphantly withlong-forgotten line “I don’t wanna hear that you’re a hostage somewhere, like Cambodia”. Overall, for their fans this Homeland disc is a near seamless track list to shuffle at will; for newcomers a good, long easy listening session.
The second disc of B-sides and rarities ebbs and flows reasonably well, worth playing if not for the winning style of new releases The Feeling and cover of Yazoo’s Only You, otherwise for the harmonies on Get My Call, the haunting nature of Bride of the Fair Countryside &/or Lonely; the remix of East Meets South or live versions of This Tin Stardom and even more so The Man That Midas Touched. Could this be the band that Midas touched? Ponder this as you look back on this karma-logue of sorts.
P.S. [Methinks even though one of the B-sides here Chapter & Verse is merely the note-for-note soul lovechild ofJefferson Airplane’s Somebody to Love, it still kinda works].
