Emily Hurd 2012
Any Given Day
Songs for all seasons from the sweet home Chicago – with a homespun chic and more.
Move over, Beth Hart! Emily Hurd has broken free from her wicker image and swaps folk for much sexier setting of Yule. Yet while the songstress turns the ghosts of her previous album into Christmas spirits, she seems to live by Winnie the Pooh’s maxim of today being one’s favorite day – or a silent night with silver bells for that matter – so these ten pieces, unlike many other season records, warm a soul all year long, not only when it’s freezing.
Thus, even though the piano-lit “Chain Of Light” flows in your ears as intimately as it gets until the closing uplift, “Glogg” conjures up a communal joy and takes it home with the “it’s a day and we’re free” line. Sure, the honeyed “In The Spirit Of Giving” is highly spiritual and, as such, most indicative of its temporal provenance, but in “Good Will” and “Children Believe” rolls out a hot cabaret panache, and in “Cold Outside” Emily puts the rockabilly glad-rags on and goes for a twangy swirl. A nice contrast and joy to the world, indeed.
*****
