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Interiors

Rosanne Cash - Interiors Audio CD

A fair review of the Rosanne Cash "Interiors" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Rosanne Cash reviews here, or go back to the Rosanne Cash tabs.

Band: Rosanne Cash
Title: Interiors
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-05
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: On the Inside 2: Dance With the Tiger 3: On the Surface 4: Real Woman 5: This World 6: What We Really Want 7: Mirror Image 8: Land of Nightmares 9: I Want a Cure 10: Paralyzed

This is contemplative and serious music
It is superb. Today my copy of Cash's 2006 release Black Cadillac arrived in the mail. Although I've had Interiors since '91 and notwithstanding the fact that I recall that I loved it from the get go it isn't a cd that I pull out of the rack very often. This is probably because I have it filed in the "country" section of my collection and I really don't care for this genre very much. If I feel like browsing for a cd to play I am far more likely to pick something that is folk or rock. Anyway, after almost twenty years (time does fly by!), I can report that Cash's 1990 release is as fine as ever. What surprised me when I went to Amazon's reviews of the recording is that there are just 14 people who have offered their opinion. Shania Twain's 1997 cd has attracted over 700 as of 7/2009! Now I do appreciate that Shania's cd was a huge seller, but come on, Interiors is a major work. Perhaps, like Poco, Cash kinda fell through the cracks - too country for non-country fans and not country enough for the Nashville folks.

Interiors has thoughtful and sometimes intense lyrics. The instrumentation is just right, complementing but never overwhelming. I particularly like the use of mandolin and violin. These instruments suit Cash's plaintive vocals perfectly. There isn't a weak song amongst the ten on an album that clocks in well under 40 minutes.

I may be crazy (I have an excuse - I am in my 7th decade of life) but aren't some of the songs very reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac? This is in no way a criticism. Mac produced a huge amount of great music between 1968 and 1977. As I revisit the albums of my life I experience an odd phenomenon quite frequently - I hear influences in the music that I didn't recognize when I was younger. Sometimes they are so obvious that I wonder what on earth I was thinking back when I first purchased and listened to the music. I guess distance adds perspective.
.

"Classic" is a bit hyperbolic

This album probably ranks as her best attempt at breaking through those obstacles. Rosanne Cash suffers from a double whammy: not fitting into comfortable stylistic niches that could ensure her more widespread airplay (and presumably popularity) and the double-edged sword of her surname. It came just months before her marriage to Rodney Crowell crumbled and the songs deal exclusively with love in decay. Crowell himself sings on some of the most damning tracks and I can only assume it was thanks to our human tendency to not recognize ourselves ('You're really good at imagining OTHERS' pain, honey!').

HIGHLIGHTS:
Though her wedlock is a "misery-go-round" (as Cash says in the album opener), they're keeping up appearances in "On the Surface". ("What are you thinking tonight?/I don't know you/My words disappear in the night/And there's no one there to notice". ) "Mirror Image" finds Cash and Crowell both numb ("No one takes time to look, they just stare"). "I Want a Cure" is Rosanne's soul screaming for it all to be over. ("There's one thing for sure/I want a cure/Where no one can see me/No one knows how I'm feeling. . ") "What We Really Want" examines the underlying hope of reconciliation even as both sides stay stoic. ("The woman silent in the mirror tonight/Wants to talk to your mirror man/And what they really want is love/What they really need is love") The tender waltz of "Paralyzed" belies its topic: Roseanne's picked up the phone and overheard hubby talking to his mistress. ("Our faces in pieces/Facades on the floor/The pretense between us for a moment destroyed. . ")

LOWS:
"Real Woman" wants to be a feminist anthem but it's too bland to achieve that. The comment another reviewer made about the excess polish of the studio hired guns is most noticeable here.

BOTTOM LINE:
This is NOT "Top 200 Albums of All Time" material. It's cohesive, sure, but in the sense that it maintains a fairly steady pace on a plateau. . not because of a large number of soaring peaks. [C'mon is this REALLY as good as Pet Sounds? Folsom Prison? Rubber Soul?] Still, it's worth your time. Appreciators of Mary Chapin Carpenter and STEADY ON-era Shawn Colvin fans will probably be the most attuned to Rosanne's sound. This and KING'S RECORD SHOP are probably her best work.

3 1/2 stars.

This is to music what Pyscho is to Movies
Oh don't get me wrong, there is only one word for this CD -- BRILLIANT. This CD will give you nightmares. But as I lay on the beach listening to this CD I couldn't help but wonder, what this poor girl went thru to be able to write such hauntingly beautiful, but disturbing songs. From "This World" she writes about a father murdering his child "He put a fist in her face. " It thrills you the way you don't want to take a shower after watching Pyscho. Every song packs image after image. This is more poetry put to music than music itself. I cannot express how amazed I am at this CDs brilliance. However this CD is NOT for casual Rosanne Cash fans. With the exception of "On The Inside and possibly "Mirror Image," the songs on it do not have much commercial appeal but their artist merit is beyond reproach. If Shakespeare could write a modern CD it would sound exactly like this. It really makes you wonder what her life was like at the time she wrote this. Again BRILLIANT.

"Interiors" Warns of the Darkness of the Heart
Crowell in his artistic and commercial ingenuity has produced and/or written a fleet of hits for then-wife Cash. Prime Cuts: What We Really Want, Paralyzed, On the Inside

Before there was Shania Twain and hubby Robert Lange, there was Rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell. Jointly, they have managed to lock in 10 country chart toppers through the 80s. On this sixth release, Cash dutifully thanks her man again for his "inspiration, love and partnership. " If art truly reflects nature, and if Crowell really inspired these songs (which lean towards marital discord), then indeed trouble must had been on the line. In hindsight, this might have been true as the Cash-Crowell marriage did crumble months after this release.

"Interiors" is an aptly titled album. These ten songs unearth the emotional shoals that lurk beneath the surface of human politeness, gentility and superficiality. The utter lack of pretense and the confessional honesty in these songs flies in the face of the shallowness of what is passed along on country radio as hits. The album starts off on a good start with the perky "On the Inside. " Setting the thematic pace for the album, "On the Inside" deals with the viciousness of betrayal and hurt. Similar in subject matter is "On the Surface. " Though set at a slower tempo, "On the Surface" is disturbingly a duet with Crowell! Were they singing this song to each other?

Lead single, "What We Really Want," is again an introverted number. This time it deals with a desperate plea for personal intimacy. Melodically, "What We Really Want" is upbeat, radio friendly and not dissimilar to Cash's previous hit "Second to No One. " It is also Cash's last shot at the country charts (peaking at number 19) before she called it truce with country music altogether. On the other hand, "I Want a Cure," is on the other extreme. It is essentially a rock song that Steve Nicks would be proud to call her own. "I Want to Cure" is proleptic of Cash's later rock oriented efforts. Not to be missed though is the excellent guitar solo from Steuart Smith on this number.

John Stewart, who wrote Cash's number 1 hit "Runaway Train," returns with the philosophical co-write, "Dance with the Tiger. " "Dance with the Tiger" is by no means as catchy and it's a tad too metaphorical for radio appeal. Much better is "Real Woman. " "Real Woman" is a female emancipation anthem bringing a temporal relief to this dark shadowy album. If released as a single, "Real Woman" could posit Cash back to country's lofty heights.

The album has two nerve wrecking moments. Those faint of heart had better be warned-"This World" has some gruesome lines about a father murdering his child in cold blood. Accompanied by a plaintive string arrangement, "This World" is a touching social commentary on the disintegration of the morals of our society. Things don't get more optimistic with the album's closer, "Paralyzed. " Scanty clad only by a keyboard, here we have Cash's naked unnerving vocals recalling overhearing a phone conversation between her husband and his lover. This is spine chilling stuff-betrayal in its most atrocious form.

"Interiors" is definitely an album that needs to be listened with the right frame of mind. It can be far too depressingly to know that the human heart is dark and deceitful. But it's also the bravest and the most honest album Cash has had ever made. "Interiors" might not have awarded her as many charted singles as her previous album, but it has certainly won Cash critically accolades and acclaims. And I might add, rightly so.

A very beautiful album
Rosanne Cash doesn't hide her feelings away. This album is very personal. She celebrates her vulnerabilty very openly. And vulnerablity is just the other side of love. Great songs are "Dance With the Tiger", "Real Woman" and "What We Really Want". Outstanding is "This World", the most touching one of all songs that I know. It is very sad, very tender, caring, stirring up and full of love. If our lesson here on Earth is to learn how to love, then Rosanne Cash has learned her lesson.

You can see a complete list of all Rosanne Cash discography, or go back to the Rosanne Cash tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.