My first listen of THINK YER SO SMART by Erika Werry & the Alphabet, which was just released last week. I’ll leave the proper reviews to the experts. In a nutshell, I enjoyed it. See the details after the throw...

WHAT: Oh a tune about jealousy, his girlfriend has a kid, Erika’s voice has a natural wobble to it and it adds to the jealousy, I’m hearing Cheap Trick there’s a lot of power strums and bit of a warbled snarl. I think she likes the person she’s singing about but hates him too. The stuff of angst. I like the piano note outro.

MATCHLESS: Ah now the cloying radio hit is out of the way and Erika turns her attention to what she’s best at, making me feel wistful and nostalgic. We’re getting to the good  stuff, a moderate slow waltz it’s a hurting tune. The warble’s gone for this song, and it’s a steady worldweary clarity. She’s stepping on the ridge to lead in a Hammond organ solo. I’m smelling old tobacco and worn out bar tables, and what a tight ending.

FISHING FOR FISH: Another conversation, these songs are about Erika’s relations with people, not entirely autobiographical but definitely in tune with her feelings. This song is uptempo but sparse. There’s a comfortable strain here, and she drifts up to the high note into a tidied up Bob Dylan harmonica.

EARLY WINE: I like wine, and I like these cut time waltzes juxtaposing with the 4/4 songs. She’s looking out the window when she sings “It makes me cross my fingers all the time” then the song drifts along getting stronger while the memories drift by. A puzzled guitar solo in the middle gives the song space while she gathers up her strength to cry fire. This song is getting prettier and prettier, and ends just soon enough to leave me feeling hollow and sad.

NEIL: Back to 4/4 This song has a nice handclap, handclaps are so hard to nail. It’s also mixed extremely left/right but it works because the playing on this song is believable because it’s so chill. And the harmony is has a relaxed sophistication. There’s a breakdown at the end that made me hope the song would continue.

IN BETWEEN: It’s a cowpoke 2 step! This one shimmers and pops I’m having trouble getting the drift but I’m on a long long road and Erika’s voice has been constantly steady throughout the album. This is definitely the highway song but again it has that restraint that’s so often missing. It’s hard to sound vulnerable without sounding tentative, but this song is cheekily emotionally mature. The vocals are totally growing on me, they push their way through all of these songs. Another tight ending.

NICK OF TIME: While I appreciate how short these songs are it’s nice to hit one that gives me some space to dream. This is the most relaxed “catching the train in the nick of time” song on the album. It’s full of questions and self doubts, there’s a bit of west Africa in the slow picked guitar. Only a Canadian can make the word “cluttered” sound just right because we know how to round the R. The OOOH’s are universal. The song is growing outwards like a creeping charlie.

SOME CAMPFIRE:  Coming after a star like Nick of Time this song sounds a bit less believable and squooshed together. This song is crying out to be slooooowed down, the lyrics are bursting out of the seams. If there’s a candidate to be over-produced by a Dave Newfeld it’s this one, for some reason I think it could use a bit of sparkle and thump, but since it has the same clear crisp arrangements which worked so well on the previous songs I’m having trouble keeping interested. But like all the other songs I see it’s ending early before I can overthink things.

MARGUERITE: Oh hello! This is more like it. The drums are recorded simply and sound great. Erika’s starting to get a bit experimental but the song is still confident and relaxed like a Sandro Perri in the urban country. A sudden uptempo blast reminds me to pay attention, then the song recedes back into its understated meme. I’m a fan of this stop-start tempo. I wonder if this song started from that hesitating “1, and 2” beat. Lilting, in a nice way. Asking a third person a question to reveal a bit more about the singer. I like the idea of listening to a garden at night.

HARANGUE: The way the songs are listed on the back of the CD this song looks like it’s part of Marguerite. It is a sort of part two. Another song squeezing a lot of words into it like Some Campfire, but this time it works and the staccato of extra syllables adds to the singer’s desire to be astounded and wowed by the song’s subject. Bits of talky singing creating a bit of polyrhythm. The song has to work a bit to reach the end, and as nice as the guitar triplets sound I wish they were somehow bigger. Not sure how this one fits together, but it ends nicely. Lots of nice endings.

UH OH: I was expecting Uh Oh to be a cutesy radio song, but instead it reminds me of a Jenny Toomey introspective. This is the candidate for the song that gets stuck in my head tonight. No drums for the first minute or so, highlighting the vulnerability in the song. This one has a nice slowbuild to it, totally satisfying example of a good Erika Werry song. I’d like to hear this one in a sad dark bar. Dammit I wish it had more of a cryptic title but that’s just because this song is great. She’s really relaxed but reaching for something out of her reach here and it works. I feel terribly sad and nostalgic now.

HUNGRY: I would be satisfied if UH OH was the last song on the album, so this one has a lot of pressure on it. I think the song’s sensing that as well, so it’s almost purely instrumental while Erika coaxes herself back into the song. This is a 4am song, she’s thinking about herself here and singing in the first person, which is a real change from the rest of the album where her focus is outward to other characters. The back and forth cord progression has a bit of a jam sound to it but this is the sort of formula that is good for coaxing.

SPOTLIGHT: What’s that acoustic guitar doing in my right ear?! Sometimes a hard pan works like in NEIL, sometimes it's a difficult sound in my right ear. It slowly mooshes back into the mix after a minute or so. And wow her tender/tenor voice sounds great alongside that organ for the last 40 seconds or so. Another barely 2-minute song.

SHIRLEY: This is a storytelling song, and the spacey arrangement that didn’t work in Spotlight really works here, this is the sort of music that has everything to do with a landlubber looking out over the sea. I really like the songs on this album with minimalist drums. Another tight ending, and oh look a long space at the end of the track for two minutes of silent contemplation. And no bonus track! Just two minutes of silence. Not sure if it’s deliberate but I think it works, it gives me a chance to finish my album in silence. Oops I take it back, there’s an alternative version of WHAT? tucked away at the end, and I’m sure it’s her most popular song, but it really highlights how restrained and sophisticated the rest of this album is. I was hoping this hidden track would be her doing a sparse lilting sobbing version of WHAT? over undone solo stums, instead it's just an alternate version, I can almost imagine how it would sound. Overall a satisfying first listen. If you like the sads. Which I do.