Jolie Holland - The Living and the Dead

Admittedly, it's the time of year when I fall for this kind of music, but Jolie Holland is seriously really good, and The Living and the Dead sees her bringing it in a sprightly vein which I find delightful. My faves are probably the most straight up country-rockers - opening trio "Mexico City", "Corrido Por Buddy" and "Palmyra", and "Your Big Hands" - which are the kinds of songs to which I dance when no one's around (today, in the sunshine outside while I was supposed to be hanging out the washing, with the album cued up on my ipod); if I'm already feeling light, they make me feel lighter, and if not, then they give me that sense of having a small something in my chest, tugging upwards, making me feel at once happy and sad. Overall, not as strong a record as Springtime Can Kill You, but it gives me something different from that other, and it's some good anyway.