The solo debut from Louisville, KY-based singer/songwriter
Cheyenne Marie Mize (
Arnett Hollow, Maiden Radio) arrives amidst the usual deluge of dreamy singer/songwriters, but what sets
Mize apart from her myriad counterparts is a real flare for the torch ballad. Not content to simply hash out old diary entries with an acoustic guitar and piano bench,
Mize achieves intimacy through carefully structuring and deconstructing traditional pop music architecture. Take the lovely “Waiting,” a languid, oddly amiable ode to anticipation that sounds like
Gillian Welch reinterpreting
Pink Floyd’s “Great Gig in the Sky,” or the bluesy and tense “Kind,” which could have been pulled from the demo reels of
Fleetwood Mac’s
Rumours. Throughout it all,
Mize manages to balance sparse, retro cool with indie folk vulnerability, like a less scatterbrained, more conventional
Nellie Mckay, or an edgier, less mainstream
Norah Jones.
Before Lately works, not just because the songs are simple and solid, but because of the restraint shown in their arrangements. Sometimes, less is indeed more. ~ James Christopher Monger