Dearest Everybody is singer and songwriter
Inara George's fourth solo album, and her first since 2009's digital-only Accidental Experimental.
Dearest Everybody displays her lithe, mellifluous alto and elastic phrasing in songs that uniquely observe the inner and outer world. Again produced by Mike Andrews, this 12-song set is a more introspective offering, with predominant (but not exclusive) use of acoustic instruments to frame songs rooted in feelings of empathy, loss, grief, gratitude, acceptance, hope, and the hard-won wisdom gained by growing older. First single and opening track "Young Adult" is an autobiographical tome about
George's story thus far. She is the daughter of the late
Lowell George (of
Little Feat) and notes that her vocation is in her gut -- biologically and spiritually inherited. She rambles through years spent making music, finding love, marriage, rearing children, and searching ever deeper within herself for "where this thing goes," before returning full circle, where she finds the "life between all this joy and sorrow." She treats these elements of life with equanimity; they are all part of her present. Second song, the atmospheric "Crazy," is fueled by fingerpicked acoustic guitars, cello, and shadowy electronic sounds which both embrace and shed love in all its irrationality and blessings. Later in "Release Me," the set's second single, she tenderly channels her mother's grief and longing, and reveals an overwhelming need to find closure and move on from insurmountable loss. "Slow Dance," informed by a party on the night of her 40th birthday, is a jangly pop/rocker that takes on the chapters of life and their passage, and acknowledges all that is to come. Her layered backing vocals atop acoustic and reverbed electric guitars and snares make its lyric lilting and bittersweet, and her memories of the past all the more poignant. "House on Valentine," driven by piano, shuffling snare, and contrapuntal winds, is an ode to witnessing how one's historical and emotional past and present combine to create emotional maturity and wisdom (even in insecurity) that weather pain and pleasure; they prepare one for acceptance.
Dearest Everybody is, despite its seemingly simple presentation, a work born of deep insight.
George paints a keen, empathic journey through both the monumental and the minutiae in life, using melody and poetic lyricism to offer a portrait of how immense the process of being loved is, and how it expands the boundaries of the human heart to embrace the world (no matter how one feels about it). Her songs are polished and tight, filled with rich, gentle harmonies, melodic hooks, subtle but illustrative textures, and glorious images that find their way inside the listener to create a seemingly private conversation.
Dearest Everybody is unassuming, but taken as a whole, it packs an emotional wallop: It's edifying as it recounts and celebrates life with humility and honesty with consummate musical skill. ~ Thom Jurek