Will Kimbrough, Sideshow Love (Daphne)

Will Kimbrough, Sideshow Love, album cover, OffBeat Magazine, March 2014

Will Kimbrough writes songs that sneak up on you. They have their subtleties—like the way the acoustic slide guitar plays above and below the steady banjo on “Home Economics,” or the way that the bass throbs like a fast heartbeat to match the yearning of singer on “I Want Too Much.” The lyrics also have interesting turns of phrase, with that same subtlety at first, before their wit or greater meaning reveal themselves moments later. The words to “Dance like Grownups Dance” with their sly metaphors and intentionally clumsy come-ons are a great example. Kimbrough writes with intelligence and sensitivity but his seriousness is balanced by doses of humor as in “Sideshow Love.” The music Kimbrough writes sticks to excellent folk-rock with acoustic guitar, unobtrusive yet steady drums, and fills and accents with everything from organ to harmonica. Some of the songs are flat-out pretty. “Emotion Sickness” closes the record with a slow, elegiac tone over slight arpeggio guitar notes and understated vocals that is simply beautiful. Kimbrough’s guitar work is as nimble and deft as ever with different textures and sounds on every song. And after the songs sneak up on you, they will stick in your head or come back to you a day or two later. That is a main attribute of good songwriting, and this record is full of it.