The sound of Caroline Sallee’s music seems to be rooted in whimsy. Yet, for Sallee, who makes music with her band as Caroline Says, making her sophomore record No Fool Like an Old Fool was no light-hearted task. She recorded much of the album in her dingy basement apartment, dodging noisy upstairs neighbors and simultaneously working three jobs. It’s miraculous, then, that No Fool should feel so bright and light, despite the circumstances and often dark subject matter. Before writing the record, the Austin-based musician returned to her hometown of Huntsville, Ala. only to discover a frustrating sense of complacency among its residents, which inspired much of this album, according to Caroline Says’ bandcamp page. The lo-fi digital folk is destined to exist both in the nether regions of bandcamp, plattered for solo listening, and on portable speakers, to be played at sunny picnics and outdoor respites. Album standout “Sweet Home Alabama” marries ’50s doo wop to enchanting folk, all while delivering a dark storyline about what happens when your hometown isn’t your home anymore. “I used to love this town,” she sings. “What has it done for me / except lead me around?” On “Mea Culpa,” Sallee ushers in breezy vibes à la She & Him’s soul-inspired surf and implements clever wordplay, singing, “I’m like a stream that’s conflicted but can’t split in two.” While No Fool Like an Old Fool is slightly less purist-folk than her 2017 debut 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong, it’s still a broad display of Sallee’s acoustic leanings, especially on the haunting “First Song.” Like with lots of great folk music, Caroline Sallee’s creeps forward and flirts with fairytale, leaving you both with a grim sense of what’s real and a fresh breath of warm, bare-bones compositions.
released March 16, 2018
Written, Performed, and Recorded by: Caroline Sallee
