Grade: B+
by David Foucher
HERE Arts & Entertainment Editor
Sunday Apr 4, 2004

Music is never far from nature – its very acoustics, rhythms and spirit are born of a natural commonality true, if never unique, to humanity. Entire genres of music (New Age the most conspicuous of the lot, if you don’t count John Denver) lay at the feel of a bubbling brook or the mountain air… yet Sophie B. Hawkins’ newest release, “Wilderness,” may be the most vibrant musical link between civilization and the world of more organic living things yet produced. Harmonic, but brimming with beat, Hawkins may be searching for a genre of her own – but she’s a joy to experience as she pensively, patiently, does so.

It’s hard to pick out an inspiration to Hawkins’ music – seductive and edgy like Alanis Morissette, acoustic and witty like the Indigo Girls, yet inspired and thrilling like Santana… you’ll find a great variety of moods and styles in this “Wilderness,” just as if you stepped outdoors and in crossing the land experienced every natural creation of the natural frontier.

The best of the lot is probably “Blue,” with its light-as-air rhythms, fun-loving spirit, and scratchy Etheridge-esque vocals, describing a soul trapped between the two worlds:

“When you strut like an Italian movie star
Taking your cappuccinos into the park
Everybody wants to know who you are
Writing poetry until it gets dark”

Age takes its place among the tracks, with the moody “Supersexywoman” and super-hip “Surfer Girl” paying homage to the process of aging (albeit in reverse on the album). Barefoot emotions (and instrumentalism) come to the fore in “Adrian” and There’s a rich dark side to the album as well, most notable in the emotive “Angel of Darkness.” And alas, like many albums, some of the tracks – “Open Up Your Eyes,” “Meet Me On The Rooftop” make less of an impact… or none at all.

But Hawkins never gets inaccessible, overly shadowy or so sporadic in her tracks that the album fails to hang as an effective collective. In fact, there is something eminently raw about all this refined, non-synthetic work (you can here it for sure in the final track, “Feeling Good,” recorded in one take in a garage with traffic passing audibly by). It’s difficult to not appreciate that intent – it infuses the album with a presence unusual in the art, and it’s very effective.

But then, Hawkins is part of that new brood of artists whose talents require no reverberation or doubling in the post-mixes to simulate real value. Her music are not for everyone’s taste; she’s a soul-searcher, not a head-banger or a pop artist. But there is something “wild” in “Wilderness,” and most often the best experiences in life encapsulate danger with beauty – in that regard, “Wilderness” is a undeniable success.

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