Summer of the Whore is singer and songwriter Shannon McArdle's debut solo effort after the demise of the Mendoza Line and her messy marriage to ML's Timothy Bracy. That said, you already know what the album is about, something McArdle and her label, Bar None, play up in her press materials. (Indeed, a sticker on the front of the jewel case proclaims: "The Mendoza Line's former singer steps out and doesn't hold her feelings back.") In other words, this is a nakedly (no pun intended) confessional -- and sometimes vengeful -- record that covers the stages from the pain of the initial breakup through anger, depression, terror, rebound, lust, and something akin to redemption. Fair enough. She's made the transition from indie-flavored country music to a kind of washed-out indie rock; it's full of her small-voiced wordy lines and overly long songs that in their quiet way bludgeon the listener with the point of every song. That said, this blend of violins, modern sound effects, whispering cymbals, snares, and wispy guitars (both electric and acoustic) offers a significant departure -- but at the same time, hearing her own songs becoming more prominent on the Mendoza Line's last few recordings, it's an expected one. Some of the album's best tracks are Poison My Cup (which has pronounced drums, breezy electric guitars, and a multi-textured ambient backdrop), Paint the Walls (which could have been written and sung by Lucinda Williams if she were a pop singer), and the gloomy title track (which evokes the slow droning electric guitars of Crazy Horse while allowing McArdle's acoustic to guide the lyric to its searing revelation).

1		Poison My Cup
2		That Night in June
3		Paint the Walls
4		Leave Me for Dead
5		I Was Warned
6		Summer of the Whore
7		He Was Gone
8		This Longing
9		Come, Autumn Breeze
10		CA DRL & 170

	Like us on Facebook
	@SoundHound	Follow