Notes From Your BooksellerPulitzer Prize and Grammy winning Rhiannon Giddens gives us another masterpiece in You're The One, her first album of all-original songs. On this new album, Giddens experiments with livelier rhythms and vocal styles infused with jazz, country, and zydeco, resulting in her most eclectic and interesting work to date.
After winning the Pulitzer Prize in Music for Omar, her opera based on Omar ibn Said's 1831 autobiography A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar ibn Said, who could blame
Rhiannon Giddens for wanting to loosen up a bit with
You're the One, an album she recorded after the production's 2022 debut? After focusing on such a serious project, it makes sense that
Giddens would want to shift gears with
You're the One, an album that bears many musical connections to the former
Carolina Chocolate Drops leader's body of work yet feels entirely different. Working with
Jack Splash -- a producer whose resume includes recordings by
Alicia Keys,
Solange Knowles,
Jazmine Sullivan,
Mayer Hawthorne, and
Kendrick Lamar --
Giddens creates what is effectively her crossover album, touching upon pop and soul without ever losing sight of either her roots or her impeccable taste. Occasionally,
Giddens focuses her attention on a specific sound, such as the folky "Way Over Yonder," but such streamlined excursions go against her very aesthetic: she thrives where cultures intersect, maybe even clash.
You're the One is filled with such moments. "Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad" is a country-funk number, she steers the folk of the title track toward pop territory, the righteous anger of "Another Wasted Life" is wrapped in a lush, cinematic arrangement, the rural imagery of "Hen in the Foxhouse" is given a decidedly urbane treatment. It's remarkable how these fusions feel bright and lively and every bit as sharp as the Americana-leaning
Freedom Highway.
Giddens may be emphasizing a different side of her personality -- and perhaps courting a different audience -- but she's made no compromises. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
