It must be hard being Martha.
Firstly there’s brother Rufus taking an enormous amount of praise for his career to date and of course her parents Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle are music royalty to their fans too. Then you have Ms Wainwright and her brilliantly received debut album. Quite rightly standing outside on it’s own very accessible merit. But there a times when you wonder about the depth of her material and where she fit’s into the dynasty and beyond.
In the ‘zone’ and delivering a song like ‘Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole’ from her debut for instance, she’s a wonderous mix of fragility and revenge. Equally thrilling with sublime covers from Pink Floyd’s ‘See Emily Play and ‘Stormy Weather’ originally from Rufus’ camptastic Judy Garland concert sees the set book-ended brilliantly but the interim is a hotchpotch of new material from her ‘I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too’ album and to be perfectly frank it’s not very good.
The sparser moments like ‘Far Away’, just her and acoustic guitar, work best but the songs aided by the fuller band are very hit and miss. There’s a slickness with the band that doesn’t seem to marry with the singer/songwriter moments and at times this feels like a lack of conviction and passion – it’s a simple fact that on stage alone Martha’s so much more vulnerable and mesmerising and as a result the songs seem more heartfelt.
She still seems at times to be finding her way, discovering her own voice – not an easy task with all the Wainwright history – the moments where she does catch fire are brilliant you just wish there were more of them.
www.marthawainwright.com
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
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