ZZ Ward "Til The Casket Drops"

 

Heard a track from her EP last summer and deemed it worthy of future consideration for the debut full-length, which was released early in the big 4th Q of 2012.  Knew I'd recall her name due to the the ZZ aspect of it, you know, Top or Hill (her age demographic won't get that), plus I didn't have to store the info for very long...  Discovered it was on a major-distributed label and I immediately went into skeptical mode.  Kept seeing her name pop up over the following couple of months and again liked what I was hearing.  Finally made the purchase just before Christmas, so it's been in my rotation for nearly eight weeks.  I've hemmed and hawed over it, giving the record several more spins than the minimum required amount, and I've finally made my decision.

First, I'll tell you that she is a domestic product, growing up on a farm in Oregon.  She's taken her love of the blues and hip-hop and deftly merged the two with some excellent songwriting skills.  I hear Joan Osbourne but my wife and her friend hear Adele.  I also jotted down maybe a little Grace Potter attitude in a G. Love & Special Sauce sauce.  My first observation was to partake in the record two or three tracks at a time.  In a complete spin it gets somewhat repetitive.  It starts strong...



...(while researching I was truly surprised at the amount of promotional work done on this girl's behalf as early as a year ago), has an accessible middle portion and finishes in a sprint at the end...



So it's a little distorted but it was uploaded just three days ago and I was view #9.  You know how I like to find these sorts of things... 

I'm going to have to be tough on this album since it's a major-label product but I will say there are lots of good ideas and good songs with enough potential that I will certainly investigate her next record.  I'm keeping five out of the thirteen selections so it's not quite enough to justify a new artist entry into the vault. 

How about one more so she can get paid for the view...