Allegra Krieger

I Hold My Ft on the Fragile Aircraft

Double Double Whammy

Aug 30, 2023
Internet Unique

By Mark Moody

On her third album, and first for Double Double Whammy, Allegra Krieger evidences a powerful grasp of her folk-based roots. And regardless of the album’s title, Krieger’s ft preserve her shifting throughout an city panorama. “I don’t know what pulls me or, during which manner I’m pulled,” Krieger admits on one in every of a number of of the album’s highlights. “A Place For it to Land” trades in a easy, seesawing people melody and feels the companion piece to Townes Van Zandt’s equally spare “No Place to Fall.” Van Zandt sought shelter in his music whereas Krieger sees herself because the supplier of the identical.

Krieger has a knack for capturing the mundane element, however within the eloquence of the statement elevates the identical to poetry. Not not like her forbears she has the power to border the set-up for an emotional connection to the listener. “From up above I noticed you, kicking ice off the concrete,” Krieger relates on the identical music. A lot is conveyed from the heat of her residence in just a few easy phrases. Whereas the empathy could also be implied, the addition of mournful French and English horn notes cement the sensation.

There are a handful of songs throughout the album, equivalent to “Let It Go, Watch It Come Again,” that drift by with out leaving a lot of a melodic impression after they’re gone, even when lyrically impressed. “I Needed to Be” incorporates evocative imagery, “oranges within the south, letting the juice drip out my mouth,” however ends in an incongruous clangor. Happily although, magnificence abounds in Sammy Weissberg’s (Kristine Leschper, Caroline Rose) horn preparations all through the album and the sudden additions of piano on “Terribly Free” and drums on the closing “Lingering,” which higher buoy Krieger’s tales.

At its greatest, I Hold My Ft on the Fragile Aircraft, provides a tough nod to the classics that preceded it. It’s unimaginable not to consider Joni Mitchell’s “Free Man in Paris” whereas listening to the jaunty “Nothing in This World Ever Stays Free,” however the music can also be filtered by means of the modernity of Courtney Marie Andrew’s “Rookie Dreaming.” However Krieger takes the ideas additional along with her personal tangled particulars: “At occasions I’m confused, at occasions confounded, typically alone, typically surrounded.”

The transient “Low” is fantastically understated, whereas the closing “Lingering” could be the most effective music on supply right here. Punctuated by William Alexander’s drum work, the music marries the traditional melody of the folks non secular “Lonesome Valley” with grittier imagery. “As I rounded the nook, it smelled like piss and rubbish, Fifth and Avenue A,” offers each precision but additionally the identical message of the sooner music: “You gotta stroll that lonesome valley, you gotta stroll it by your self.” Krieger is aware of this innately and conveys it bravely and fantastically all through the album. (www.allegrakrieger.com)

Writer score: 7/10