Aimee Bobruk Releases New Album
The Safety Match Journal is Debut LP from Austin Singer-Songwriter
For years, Aimee Bobruk has been somewhat of a satellite orbiting Austin's dense singer-songwriter community. With her recently released debut L.P., The Safety Match Journal, she aims to move toward the center of that universe. The album is a tightly-focused collection of folk-pop songs bolstered by a quirky production ethic and anchored by Bobruk's crystalline singing.
From the opening swells of a pedal steel on "Liverpool," it's apparent that the years of dues-paying Bobruk has spent on the Austin scene have paid off. "Last night I got tangled in the arms of Liverpool / I fell in love all over, head crying on the pillow / Now I know it won't be easy with the state I'm in / I could do something very strange," Bobruk sings.
It's a song that easily could drift into formulaic roots-rock, yet thankfully avoids that road by smartly building up instruments--percussion, electric guitar, banjo, and even a horn section--and employing simple yet elegant rhymes.
Safety Match Musicians, Production Excellent
Meanwhile, "Fools for Love" is a bouncy depiction of a woman who more than lives up to the title, as Bobruk sings, "Heartbreak from hell hot on her trail / It could take a lifetime to escape / Like a patchwork doll tattered from taking the fall / She wouldn't change her ways if it meant losing passion." It's dark stuff of the best kind, elevated by an eclectic arrangement that expertly mixes saxophones, flute, and organ. Fans of Over the Rhine will find a certain kinship here.
Much of The Safety Match Journal's value can be attributed to the tasteful contributions of some of Austin's brightest musicians (Kullen Fuchs, Ana Egge, and Will Sexton, to name a few). However, it is the intuitive production of Darwin Smith, who also contributes the bulk of the electric guitar, that keeps these songs on course.
On what could have been a derivative salsa number, Smith skillfully keeps "Yo Los Veo" from traveling that road, instead relying on the quirky interplay of horns, percussion and a staccato electric guitar. The approach works, allowing Bobruk's tale of a poor neighborhood to breathe without collapsing into triteness.
In the End, Bobruk's Voice Shines Through
Taking a cue from Renaissance music, "Dulcinea" waxes poetic against a backdrop of violins and cellos. "You make love to fantasy, her illusions sweat of your brow," Bobruk sings, "Devouring kisses from chapped lips / You heave and thrust ephemeral lust."
It is perhaps the most unusual track on the album, considering it comes right before the spacey rock of "First Move." Together, the songs show Bobruk's versatility as a songwriter as well as Smith's breadth as a producer.
By the end of The Safety Match Journal, "Shores of Gold" finds Bobruk right back where she started, plucking an acoustic guitar and letting her voice carry the weight of the song. Even with the layered instrumentation that flows throughout these 12 tracks, the production is unobtrusive, allowing Bobruk's vocal and lyrical assets to shine through.
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