Kelly Willis: What I Deserve : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Kelly Willis made a striking impression on her first three albums; What I Deserve is even better. Gone are the attempts at country radio hits and the forced sprightliness. Just listen to the nuances -- the slurred notes, the yodels and cracks in the voice -- in her reading of the title track, a classically finessed country vocal. Ruminative and emotionally acute, What I Deserve boasts tailor-made arrangements, from the organ and mandolin that color the heartbroken "Not Forgotten You" to the bluesy seventh chords that underscore Willis' sultry come-on in "Got a Feelin' for Ya." The record's few lapses -- an awkwardly countrified recasting of Nick Drake's "Time Has Told Me" and a version of the Replacements' "They're Blind" that bleeds self-pity -- make one yearn for more hard-bitten Willis originals on the order of "Fading Fast" and "Not Long for This World." But by refusing to be confined to a radio-friendly corral, Willis has fashioned an album that's more purely country. (RS 808)

PARKE PUTERBAUGH