Album Review: Valerie June Is An Artist of Maturity In “The Order of Time”
When it comes to some good classic folk rock and country blues Valerie June might as well be an old soul. Releasing her fourth studio album The Order of Time, June comes back with her signature ability to grab life like it was something we could possess rather than something that possesses us. As she plays her banjo/ guitar, her songs become so visible before you that they might as well be read rather than heard.
I love Music because it it can tell stories about an ordinary life, ordinary people, and ordinary things. It seems that Valerie June has the same interpretations of music’s capacity. In songs like “The Front Door”. “Long Lonely Road”. and “Slip Slide On By:, June comes off so lax in her vocals you wonder if she’s singing to you from her front porch on a summer’s day with just a batch of iced tea, her banjo, and looking out on the green grass as if it were the most beautiful thing to witness. She sings her songs with a slow, spiritual, and soft lower register, and her tone, despite being pretty straight, seems to flow up-and-down in emotional range. Yet, I would not call Valerie June a sentimental singer despite appearance. She has so much emotion because, lyrically, she is one of the most perceptive singer -songwriters alive. Tracks such as “Astral Plane” and “Two Hearts” are so visionary in words, which may not seem like it in comparison to how simple her arrangements. A light drum tap, a winding guitar strum, and not too many spontaneous elaborate “riff sections”, help to make The Order of Time is a smooth record to listen.
Valerie June – Shakedown
Shake Down
“Love You Once Made”, “Got Soul”, and “If And” are old songs that exemplify Valerie June’s talent at reaching for one of the greatest questions we have in life “What if we stay? “So often. we think that our inner tension comes from leaving a moment, a relationship, or a path. Yet stress can arise when we ask ourselves to stay in a place and transform it into the somewhere we thought about leaving to. When June sings about relationships or the decisions of her life she seems as if she’s wondering how present, powerful, and prominent she can be in her situation so as not only to receive from them but also gives back. It is this type of maturity and figuring out how she works as an individual in the many lives of others that makes The Order of Time an album you listen to when for a second you think and want to feel grown up. Maybe, that’s why the album comes off so simple in vocals and instrumentals: the hardest part about growing up is that it is about simplifying. It is about finally letting go of all the drama “Man Done Wrong” or finally declaring and opening your love like “With You”. The Order of Time shows that “time” is wasted in thinking about your next move rather than actually living it: not just making it but enjoy it. For more information on Valerie June and to buy the order time click here.
