Kim Richey: Glimmer : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When singer-songwriters like Steve Earle or Rosanne Cash ditch Nashville for the larger worlds of rock and pop, it's usually because their idiosyncratic vision won't fit within the rigid formulas and confines of country music. Kim Richey's defection is a little more mysterious. Glimmer, her third album, is a smooth, accomplished stab at adult-contemporary respectability, but it feels more lifeless than either of her Nashville efforts. Producer Hugh Padgham (Genesis, XTC) retains rootsy touches like accordion and mandolin, but he takes the edge off every beat. Richey's high, sweet flutter of a voice sometimes floats off, Enya-like, into the ether. She has a killer instinct for melodic hooks, but it doesn't help that her theme here is restraint, and the way the wounded cover up their emotions. "How have I been?" she asks in "Hello Old Friend." "That can of worms / Ain't worth opening." By allowing her characters to keep their feelings bottled up, Richey lets her listeners do the same. Glimmer is almost devoid of highs and lows. For an exploration of middle ground, she could have stayed right in Nashville. (RS 820)

KAREN SCHOEMER