Kristin Hersh
Sunny Border Blue

The time of year I prefer is the end of summer: the days continue to be brightened and warmed by the sun, but they are no longer suffocating, and the evenings start to become cooler.

What makes me prefer this particular moment even more is the light: that soft and slightly tilted light that gets caught in your hair and won't let go, that blurs and softens the corners. A vivid light, but with discretion, as if wanting to apologize for the beautiful season it's about to take away, mesmerizing us while foreshadowing a glimpse of the opulence of the upcoming autumn colors.

On one of these blue late summer evenings, walk barefoot along the grassy paths.

By stepping on the sharp blades, which will break under the weight of your passage, you will feel alive and free and lucky to be there, in the space-time of the "here" and "now".

Bring a blanket, a bottle of good wine, all your lost loves, regrets, remorse, your quirks, bitterness, unmotivated laughter, and those that rise from the depths of your heart, and above all, do not forget "Sunny Border Blue" by Kristin Hersh.

Start the first track, relax, and lie down to count the stars one by one: infinite love will rise in your soul, and you will go far, very far, like a gypsy.

The album by my favorite Throwing Muse (the other, Tanya Donelly, never convinced me much as a solo artist) should be listened to this way to be fully appreciated. If you have heartaches, and one moment you're depressed and the next you want to commit murder, even better, you'll adhere like glue to Kristin's mood at the time when she composed this work.

American singer-songwriter music, indie-folk that reminds me of the atmospheres cherished by Elliott Smith, Portland, Oregon, and something of Polly Jean Harvey. A record released by 4AD, a label from which I have always drawn freely, dated 2001, yet still worth listening to and/or discovering, because it contains little treasures, composed, arranged, played, and interpreted by this small, great woman. She effortlessly switches from acoustic to electric guitar, from wind instruments to the piano. But she enchants particularly with her childlike voice, which crackles like sandpaper on skin and soul.

One of the most successful tracks is surely the opening "Your Dirty Answer", where sudden tempo changes and mood swings are already anticipated, a characteristic of the entire album. A song that starts quietly and then gets angry, continuously. "Not my fault, it's not my fault if you don't love me when I'm drunk. I'm clean, I'm so tired... bear with me a little longer." sings Kristin.

"Spain", following it, is in my opinion the best song on the album, capturing its essence in a piercing final phrase: "I wanted you to sleep with her and hate yourself, instead of me." And to think it started as a dream of a dusty vacation in Spain, to put together pieces that no longer fit together, as it seems.

"Silica" and "Summer Salt" are light and sunny episodes, which at one time were described as "dreamy pop," if we must label everything – by the way, I have always wondered what necessity there is for that, when the only thing that matters is: "Does it convey something to me or leave me cold?" – and particularly the latter song has a text I have always found very amusing. It talks about going back, to when we were as clean as newborns, to try and act soberly, but then a "toxic thing" surely emerges to gladly keep everything lively... Mrs. Hersh knows well what she's referring to, and no, it's not the salt mentioned in the title.

And the subsequent statement, that "for an ugly boy you sure look pretty" is an undeniable truth, immediate and eternal.

Just as true, it's easy, very easy, to find oneself sleeping with "idiots and prophets," as she states decisively in "Ruby," another great track.

The other songs are more intimate and follow the general line of this work, which concludes with a lysergic and disillusioned, intense, and tense "Listerine," passing through a pearl set in the whole with extreme nonchalance, a cover of "Trouble" by Cat Stevens.

"Things break all the time. Glasses, dishes, nails. Promises. Hearts." says writer Jodi Picoult. If it's true (oh my god, how true it is!), "Sunny Border Blue" seems to have been composed precisely to remind us, with a decent dose of the irony needed in these circumstances.

If you're in the mood, put it on your listening agenda for the end of September.

P.S. A heartfelt and special thanks to the great M’sieur Arthur for providing me with inspiration and illuminating words to write this review.