Independent Enjoyment Review

This week's album releases
By Andy Gill
27 October 2000

SHEA SEGER | The May Street Project (RCA)

Shea Seger grew up in a small Texan town, with just one TV channel and the record collection of her father, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, for intellectual stimulation. Things could have been a lot worse, judging by this excellent début album from the 20-year-old singer-songwriter, which distills the experiences and observations of those first 20 years down into 13 songs whose maturity belies her youth. Recorded in London with producer Martin Terefe, and mixed by Commissioner Gordon (best known for his work with Lauryn Hill), the album presents her intimate singer-songwriter stylings in modern settings derived from dance culture, rather like a more sanguine Beth Orton. But in place of Orton's folksy sincerity, Seger's upbringing, steeped in the sounds of Otis and Marvin and Curtis, has given her own music a languid charm that is captured perfectly by Terefe's laidback, swampy grooves on songs such as "Blind Situation" and the impromptu autobiographical recollection "May Street". The results resemble Rickie Lee Jones's 1997 trip hop experiment Ghostyhead, but with a greater sense of purpose, and better hooks. This is particularly noticeable on the single "Last Time", with its Mayfield-style strings and crisp funk drums, and the imminent follow-up "Clutch", whose irresistible, loping groove applies the deep bass and terse hi-hats of dub reggae in a funk-rock context. One of the best début albums of the year.