Album Review: Sallie Ford Feels “Soul Sick”
Folk rock with a winding up-tempo and a hidden country flare. That is how I would describe the sound of Sallie Ford, whose name even sounds like a cool songstress ready to write lyrics for how you feel “Soul Sick”: the title of her new album. Soul Sick has a casually worn aura, which will make listeners convert it into their “go-to” album for every instant they want to feel a little more motivated for the lesser experiences of life.
Sallie Ford’s Soul Sick reminds me of the 90’s films where the lead actress would have her “ENOUGH!” moment and put on a femme-empowering record to dance. Soul Sick comes off like one of the albums she would put, with Sallie Ford’s vocals providing a cross between resilience and resting. I say resilient because to counter her words of being exhausted by social and spiritual machination, she builds her voice to have an inherent strength. She plays with her annunciations and notes to represent how exhausted she is by others’s usage of her like in, “Romanticized Catastophe” and “Loneliness Is Power”. That ability to hit a rock n’ roll range of wealth and tiredness elevates freedom her album gives. I know that “tiredness” and “worn” are not usually complimentary terms, but folk and rock music are all people’s sense of being over the “BS” of humanity. Sometimes, you just want to tel the world “Get Out”, and Sallie For creates music that is catchy in tune even when she is lyrically confronting. After all, feeling like a “Middle Child” is not exactly something that makes you want to grab your cowboy boots and square dance, but Ford’s song moves you to do exactly that.
As a fellow young and ambitious woman, I understand Ford’s frustration at being taken for less or assumed as unremarkable. “Never Gonna Please” and “Hurts So Bad” are upbeat in guitar melodies, but rock-bottom in truths: no matter how much you have and want to lovingly share yourself with others, the can still say no. You would think that in a world that exalts virtues such as, harmony, it would be eager to say yes to people’s bright ideas and unifying capacities. Yet, as we have seen, in the last year, not so much. Still, Sallie Ford is NOT to be taken aside. With literal title tracks like, “Screw Up”, “Unraveling”, and “Failure”, it may seem odd to call Soul Sick an empowering album, but it is therapeutic in catharsis. So many times, we are all told that we are the reason something went wrong. Blame is a scary thing to feel, but for Sallie Ford, whether it is rightfully or wrongfully placed upon you, your spirit still has to persevere. Such determination is heard, again, in the affirming voice and smiling rhythms that make sure to inspire people to let go of negativity to find personal positivity. For More Information On Sallie And To Buy Soul Sick Click Here.
