Telling Stories
WithTelling Stories, her first album since 1995'sNew Beginnings, Tracy Chapman returns to the spare, unsentimental feel of her early work. In doing so, she recaptures some of the urgency and simple melodiousness that made herdebuta soulful folk-rock classic. There's maturity here, exemplified by recurring spiritual metaphors. On "Unsung Psalm" she imagines her funeral, singing, "I'd have a halo and flowing white robes / If I live right." "Wedding Song" offers the plainspoken, devotional line, "I reach out for your hand / For you I'd don a veil." The musical arrangements, too, are pared-down, with ghostly banjo, silvery fiddle, and guitar woven into subtle drum loops. Though not as immediately captivating as her debut,Telling Storiesis a focused return to form for Chapman.--Lucy O'Brien