Hymns for the Exiled
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Track listing
- 1 Before the Eyes of Storytelling Girls
- 2 1984
- 3 Cosmic American
- 4 The Belly and the Beast
- 5 Orion
- 6 Mockingbird
- 7 I Wear Your Dress
- 8 Quecreek Flood
- 9 A Hymn for the Exiled
- 10 Two Kids
- 11 One Good Thing
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2 Issues
1 Review
I have this folkie streak in me. Most of the time I want more volume and more instrumentation, but there are times when I can embrace albums that quietly get their messages across. Anaïs Mitchell's second album, 2004's Hymn for the Exiled, is such an album. It keeps the accompaniment turned down, mostly relying on an acoustic guitar, and her spare, slightly cracking, and beautiful voice. I don't need to listen to the lyrics -- the aching in her voice and gentle guitar can leave me delighted on their own. If she ever wanted to try her hand at country, I feel confident Nashville would welcome her (if she left her politics at the door).
But I don't stop with the sounds, because the lyrics to the album's 11 songs are generally excellent -- most of the lyrics are political, usually tied to the U.S. government or gender. "1984" turns Prince's "1999" on its ear, telling us that with the arrival of Orwell's Big Brother in the guise of the USA Patriot Act, "we're gonna party like it's 1984." "Two Kids" told partly in English, partly Arabic -- while I don't have the translation of the latter, I assume it mirrors the English part, with a child talking about his father hiding in a shelter, afraid of the people who hate all Americans. The speaker in "I Wear Your Dress" tells her grandmother that while she wears an old dress of her grandmother, two generations later, she doesn't need to wear the role that society placed her grandmother in. The album concludes with "One Good Thing," where someone depressed about current political news implores a significant other to tell him/her one good thing about the USA (presumably to prevent fleeing to Canada).
I can't help but compare the album to early Ani DiFranco -- a little more accompaniment, a little nicer voice, but the same quiet insistence.
But I don't stop with the sounds, because the lyrics to the album's 11 songs are generally excellent -- most of the lyrics are political, usually tied to the U.S. government or gender. "1984" turns Prince's "1999" on its ear, telling us that with the arrival of Orwell's Big Brother in the guise of the USA Patriot Act, "we're gonna party like it's 1984." "Two Kids" told partly in English, partly Arabic -- while I don't have the translation of the latter, I assume it mirrors the English part, with a child talking about his father hiding in a shelter, afraid of the people who hate all Americans. The speaker in "I Wear Your Dress" tells her grandmother that while she wears an old dress of her grandmother, two generations later, she doesn't need to wear the role that society placed her grandmother in. The album concludes with "One Good Thing," where someone depressed about current political news implores a significant other to tell him/her one good thing about the USA (presumably to prevent fleeing to Canada).
I can't help but compare the album to early Ani DiFranco -- a little more accompaniment, a little nicer voice, but the same quiet insistence.
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Catalog
27 May 2021
11 Apr 2021
13 Mar 2021
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25 Feb 2021
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1 Dec 2020
29 Oct 2020
18 Oct 2020
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