Judee Sill - Judee Sill (1971) {2022 Hybrid SACD}

Judee Sill was just 35 when she died of a drug overdose in 1979, never having extended what seemed to be an unlimited potential on this, her debut record, released just eight years before. With the wits of a poet and the intonation of an angel, the post-hippie Californian laced her original compositions with astral and religious imagery--and feelings of hopelessness--and then executed them with the pop lavishness of Karen Carpenter. Sill's contemporaneous acoustic folk is sparely backed, while her multitracked vocals add to the redemptive eeriness of supernatural songs like "Lopin' Along thru the Cosmos," "The Phantom Cowboy," and "Enchanted Sky Machines." That Graham Nash produced the minor radio hit "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" (and later saw it covered by his former band the Hollies) attests that Sill was running with the right crowd. But despairing lyrics like "Guess reality is not as it seems / So I sit here hoping for truth and a ride to the other side" ("Crayon Angels") suggest that Judee Sill was conscious that her life could be brief. Thankfully, she left this behind. --Scott Holter