Torres: Sprinter
For her incredible second album as Torres, Mackenzie Scott doubles down on all those PJ Harvey comparisons big time. First, she traveled to the singer’s English hometown of Bridport, Dorset to partially record this new nine-song cycle, as well as the Bristol studio of Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley, who plays on the majority of the record as well. Next, she reunited the original Harvey rhythm section of bassist Ian Oliver and drummer Robert Ellis for the first time since 1992’s Dry, an album as old as Scott herself. And what she crafts here with this crew of British alt-icons is not so much an emulation of Rid Of Me-era Polly as it is a conjuring of that feral feminism channeled through her descriptive, and literally heartfelt, recounting of her conservative Baptist upbringing in Macon, Ga. (as heard on blistering cuts like opening track “Strange Hellos” and the righteous “Cowboy Guilt”). Yet when Sprinter reaches the finish line, Scott lets out a breathless sigh in the form of two heart-stopping ballads in “The Harshest Light” and “The Exchange” that really open up the listener’s ears to the truth behind her songcraft. Make no mistake, Torres is a force to be reckoned with.