FOR an artist whose group work and collaborations have covered everything from punk to psychedelia, San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Meg Baird has always chosen the path less noisy when it comes to her solo work. Considering her previous lone excursions contained little more than acoustic guitar in instrumentation terms, Don’t Weigh Down The Light – her third album – could almost be classed as expansive. The guitars are meatier (but only slightly), and organ and percussion have been drafted in to flesh out her sound, but where Baird’s music is concerned, the accompaniment ranks second to the storytelling. Even The Walls Don’t Want You To Go and Past Houses would suggest a theme of transition and uncertainty on this album even if it didn’t include a brief giveaway midway through (Leaving Song), and Don’t Weigh Down The Light carries an echoing sense of emptiness, airiness, and finding a place in a different world. It’s perhaps too linear an album to be truly diverting, but any artist with a voice as gloriously glacial as Baird’s will always be worth turning your attention to.
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