An excellent value compilation of songs from the Canadian singer-songwriter’s career.
Nova Scotia, Canada, singer-songwriter Christina Martin has reached the point in her 20-year career when she feels the need to put out a compilation. It’s not a greatest hits album. Instead, as the label describes it: “it is a carefully curated collection of songs that have quietly become the backbone of Martin’s live performances and the emotional thread running through her career. These are the tracks fans return to again and again – hidden gems, emotional gut-punches, slow-burn favourites, and songs that tell her story”. Martin has released eight studio albums between 2007 and 2023, one of which is a duets album with partner Dale Murray. In addition, she has put out quite a few live albums.
Of the studio recordings, all but her self-released debut and the duets album are represented on The Essentials, and while the songs from the latest album, Storms (2023), feature on the last quarter of the 20 songs making up the album, the rest are spread throughout the track list. For those, like this reviewer, more familiar with Martin’s solo acoustic live work, the instrumentation and production on the studio tracks set them in quite a different dimension.
The first track, The Breeze, is one of two new tracks on the record. Written by Martin and Murray in Austin, it celebrates the outdoors by a lake there. The performance nicely captures the sense of freshness of the open air. The instrumentation throughout The Essentials draws out elements of pop and rock, especially the Canadian indie sounds of the 2005-2015 period.
Marina is one of the songs with the greatest impact, opening with a New York-Austin road trip and oozes passion and uncertainty with some classy guitar filling out the sound. This listener’s ears pricked up to the rocky opening to Puppet Museum. The vocal delivery is dramatic, verging on the operatic, a mood underlined by John Boudreau’s rhythmic piano chords. Murray’s guitar is a highlight once again.
By the time we get to the three tracks from Storm, Martin’s voice is sounding a little deeper. Set amongst them is the second of the new songs, Golden Tears. The song has an interesting backstory. Part of a project to pair songwriters with storytellers in Nova Scotia, Martin took the story she heard and transformed it into a song in an afternoon. The arrangement with pedal steel and strings prominent, rather sets it apart on the compilation. Jessica Rhaye adds backing vocals.
The Essentials is (for now at least) available as download-only via Bandcamp for C$10 (plus taxes), which scores it very highly in the value-for-money stakes. And subscribers to the platform can stream for free.
