The Lines of My Earth

Giving up, or at least making songs about giving up, is what they do best. So when Sixpence None the Richer starts making records again after four years of silence, when they start over with a fresh canvas, optimism even, it feels weird. "The Lines of My Earth" is one of many Sixpence songs about not having the will to carry on -- not surprising considering the "issues" the band was plagued by for most of their career. "This is the last song that I write / till you tell me otherwise" the chorus begins. Of course, it's the eigth song on a 12-song LP, so somebody told Matt Slocum otherwise. Thankfully.  There's a slinky AM-radio blues thing going on -- it's almost sexy (even moreso live, lately) even as it's a song about apathy. As is par for this record, drummer Dale Baker does so much with so little, and Leigh Nash sounds exhausted when she breathes out the words "I just don't feel it any more."

This is music to squeeze blood from rocks by; something Sixpence None the Richer does with grace.