CD Review

Artist: Kate Maki

Title: On High

Label: Saved By Vinyl
Released: February 12^th 2008

3 Stars

Reviewed By: Christopher Williams

What a sweet, sweet gal Kate Maki is. In fact Maki is so sweet she needs a daisy chain crown to go along with her soft vocals and flower-power folk musical style. Maki's third album On High is a collection of soft-spoken songs too delicate for present day ears.

Even when Maki attempts to tackle more politically charged songs like ‘We Are Gone,' they still come off sounding like a night time lullaby intended to send a droopy-eyed child off to nod. Maki's music is pleasant enough, in fact, its darn right ‘nice' but it hits the mark dangerously near bland, and for such a gentle spirited singer/songwriter I feel like the ogre-critic everyone thinks we are for asking why isn't Kate Maki meaner? What's wrong with the world where songs like ‘All Around My Hat' by Steeleye Span (circa 1976) no longer qualify because they lack edge? Maki's music is folk after all, so Steeleye Span might seem like a good parallel of what folk music should sound like, but we did that style of folk music in the 70s and now we are looking for a different kind of folk. On High seems more akin to 70s folk, which ostracizes Maki's discerning present day audience.    

Maki collaborates with Nathan Lawr, who has equal sedation qualities to his soft and mellow albums. I had hoped Maki was a diamond in the rough, but On High felt like an exhausting journey through one long song.

Highway

Blue Morning

Wanted Ads

White Noise

To Please

Message Forgot

Badminton Racquet

Beyond The Sun

We Are Gone

Don't Look Down

On A String