I love Kathleen Edwards. I have been wanting to review here latest, Asking For Flowers, for quite some time now. Seeing Kathleen grace the cover of the Canadian music essential publication Exclaim! this month finally got me off my ass.

Kathleen is an Ontario based Canadian singer/songwriter. Compared to other singer/songwriters, there is something about Kathleen that really makes her stand out . She isn’t as alternative as Basia Bulat, not at country as Christine Fellows and not as poppy as Sarah Harmer. Kathleen is just a fantastic, honest singer who will send the shivers up your spine.

In her Exclaim! interview she mentions that the last thing she wants to do is write about her life. This really surprised me as I would assume that all her songs would be personal ones. I mean, what else do singer/songwriters have to sing about? After listening to Back To Me in 2003 I thought to myself, ‘Shit, somebody hurt this girl real bad’, and as a male listening to it, I felt guilty for something that some other asshole did to her. On Asking For Flowers, Kathleen can still pierce you with some gut wrenching, honest lyrics, which is what she does best and why I keep listening. I still get the feeling that she is hurting, but now, in 2008, she is going to kick somebody ass because of it.

Here is my favorite track from Asking For Flowers, Sure As Shit. Girls who play guitar and swear get the OK from the Panic Manual.

You sure as shit
Know me better than anybody else
And for that in my heart I am hopeful
So I helped you pack your bags
And I folded up your snap shirts
And when you come back it will already be the winter
If you look at other girls working out in the night time
I don’t mind but I don’t want to know

I just cried a little.

 

 Kathleen Edwards - Sure As Shit (2008): Play Now