Juanita Stein - America

The Guardian 60

(Mute)

As frontwoman of Howling Bells, a deliciously dark Australian rock band with country twangs to lose your heart in, Juanita Stein’s solo debut should be a thrill. These roads, though, are just too well worn, ambling through Nancy’n’Leeville on Florence – a tribute to the woman depicted in Dorothea Lange’s 1936 Migrant Mother photograph – stopping by Patsy Clinetown for Cold Comfort. The Chris Isaak romance of Dark Horse and the dusty space rock of Black Winds are lush enough, but there’s not enough deviation from shtick, enough convincing deviance in this “ode to the dark heart” of the US. Stein is capable of more than just making America fine again.