By Brian Rock
Iconoclast Canadian artist Cat Clyde confronts cycles of love, loss, and the healing power of nature on her fourth album, Mud Blood Bone. Singing with a tremolo-tinged intensity that’s equal parts Sarah Shook, Patti Smith, and Eilen Jewell; Clyde embarks on a soul-searching journey to mend a broken heart, to find herself, and to make room in her heart for love’s return.
“Wild One,” finds Clyde beginning her journey in the warmth of love’s sweet embrace. She strums peppy alt-rock chords as she sings, “Oh wild one, lay with me under the rays of soft sun.” Pulses of organ punctuate the moment like labored breaths of passion as she continues, “Heart go out and heart come home up into the clouds of loam. Let my strings be loose and fly up into the open sky,” The melody rises and falls in harmony with the intensity of the moment. But even in this moment of bliss, there is a feeling of foreboding as she notes at song’s end, “Shadows fall and time goes by measured by my lonely sigh.”
The foreboding comes to fruition in the country grunge of, “Where Is My Love.” Burned by love’s flame, Clyde is twice shy on the scorching delta blues of, “Man’s World.” She moans, “If I don’t lock my door, who knows what will come inside?” “Another Time,” sees her longing for the past. The cosmic cowboy tones beckon her as, “I walked a ragged mile, found myself at your door.” But reality sets in and she decides, “That old road keeps calling me to walk a thousand more.” “Night Eyes,” is a masterful, cinematic, country noir that finds Clyde assessing her status. Hawaiian guitar strains give a peaceful, tropical feel as she contemplates the pleasures of the past, but the song takes a dramatic turn with staccato piano and drum beats as she asserts, “I’ll never be a slave again for love.” “Wanna Ride,” is a cow punk eruption of defiance and freedom. With a fierce, Patti Smith snarl, Clyde declares, “I don’t wanna feel so lonely. I don’t wanna feel you only. I just wanna ride.”
Done with relationships and commitments, she resolves to live on her own terms. “Press Down,” keeps the rebellious cow punk attitude going as she asserts, “Only the sky can press me down.” After expending her rage, Clyde catches her breath on the anthemic folk rock of, “My Love.” No longer defined by relationships, she finds a new identity in nature. Finding peace in solitude, she sighs, “The call of the night bird; I love every trill. There’s peace and contentment when everything’s still.” Having drunk from nature’s healing fountains, she makes peace with herself on the tender, “I Am Now.” With a newfound sense of self, Clyde is finally ready to take another chance at love on the bluesy, “Dark Back.” Still hesitant to commit, she confesses, “My body was telling you, my mouth wouldn’t say.” She finally comes full circle on the country funk of “Hold My Hand,” Self-confident enough to brave love’s tumultuous tides, she sings, “I wanna move with love in the buoyant salty ether.” But tempering her impulses, she slows the pace and sings, “If you hold my hand, I think you could understand.” Moving from physical desire to emotional connection, she finally invites love to come to her on her own terms. Full of passion and poetry, Cat Clyde paints a richly textured musical mosaic of love’s perilous path.
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Brian Rock
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