Mental Illness
As with last year's Sarah Jarosz album that won this category, I don't think this is "folk." Just because it's mostly acoustic does that classify it as such, but I think I'm finally giving up on trying to clarify these categories. After all, many years ago they gave Jethro Tull the award for Best Heavy Metal.
The first few times I listened to Mental Illness I was caught up in how lovely Mann's voice is. It wasn't until the third or fourth listening that I started hearing the lyrics. She's always been known as a great lyricist, and on this album she chronicles heartbreak, loneliness, and doubt. It's not called Mental Illness for nothing.
The first song is called "Goose Snow Cone," and it wasn't until I watched an interview on YouTube with her that I found out it's about a cat named Goose. But the deeper meaning of the song is depression and putting on a happy face despite of it.
"Gotta keep it together when the friends come by
Always checking the weather but they wanna know why
Even birds of a feather find it hard to fly"
Another song about being down in the dumps is "You Never Loved Me," about a bride left at the altar.
"Three thousand miles to sit in a room
With a vanishing groom
Till it undoes me
A helium cell like a hermit crab shell
Was a blank, you could tell
It never was me '
Cause you will never love me"
I think my favorite song, although none of them on this album are turkeys, is "Patient Zero," which appears to be about a loss of prestige:
"They served you champagne like a hero
When you landed, someone carried your bag
From here on out, you're patient zero
Smelling ether as they hand you the rag"
Though these songs may be consistently sad, they are not downers. Mann's voice and the melodies maintain a sense of hope. Since her days in Til Tuesday she has been one of the better singer-songwriters on the scene, and I'm glad she won this award because it brought my attention to the record.
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