The Pacific Northwest has been privy to Beth Whitney's work for quite some time as a meaningful singer-songwriter, but occasionally her songs have made their way to attentive ears across the country who have found her Intntive work and rejoiced. If another release is going to work its magic and carry her songs farther than ever before, we certainly hope Into the Ground is one such album.
Whitney's work is equal parts unnerving and intimate—in the best possible way—and "Wild Roses", the opening track, serves as a prime example. The tension and anticipation of its opening strums are deeply affecting before Whitney even gets a chance to deliver her stunning descriptors—noticing is likely the better term here—of the world around and within.
Under the snow
There’s an army of wild roses
How do they know
When to wake
And when it’s fallow
These things take time
These things
Take their time
It's here that Whitney's work shows its (literal) rooted origins, that Into the Ground is a sincere direction for the compositions on her latest album. She is an artist present with herself and the world she's tasked with ordering, and writing and releasing these songs feel like an act of obedience in this direction. As she sings "these things take their time," it's an auto-response to nod along and want to yield that precious gift to her knowing she will take good care of it.
The natural order around Whitney becomes the subject matter of several songs on Into the Ground. "Huckleberry" is a playful album closer that sings of the joys of long-term commitment. "Wild Horse" is a cinematic pop number filled with vivid imagery as she sings, "I'm a wild running thing / I'm Orion, I'm a raven's wing." The vocal effects used on "Moonlight" are an intriguing flourish that add another layer of interest to an already poignant song. "Thunder" is a slow, acoustic hymns that include many words from the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."
Not everything on Into the Ground stems from Whitney's personal journals, but it's all lovely nonetheless. The biblical parable of the prodigal son is the subject of "Two Sons" and it's hard not to feel the repeated sentiment "...and I'm miles and miles from home."
In the Ground is beautiful from beginning to end, but there's no denying "In Another Life" as a particularly striking highlight. Straightforward four-minute love songs are dime a dozen, even in this genre alone, but Whitney has struck gold with this song that could easily find itself topping the AAA charts sometime soon. The song itself doesn't mine any original terrain, but her vulnerable treatment of regret is universal and the melody is so marvelous.
Into the Ground is a significant work of art from an artist whose work with the listener remains unfinished even after the songs have stopped playing.
VISIT: Beth Whitney
