Album review: Tami Neilson, SASSAFRASS!

NZ Herald·

19 Jul, 2018 01:00 AM2 mins to read

Tami Neilson is serving sass on Sassafrass! Photo / Ashley Church

A lot has changed for Tami Neilson in recent years and it certainly shows on Sassafrass, where she's more powerful and political than ever.

In the past five years, Neilson lost a parent, became a parent and turned 40. All that teamed with the current political climate of Trump, #MeToo and #Time'sUp has led to Sassafrass.

Even the name is apt; Sassafrass is a slang term for confident, sassy person who isn't afraid to speak their mind and it perfectly sums up Neilson on this album - her first since 2015's hugely emotional Don't Be Afraid.

Sassafrass is packed full of tracks that aim a middle finger squarely at the patriarchy.

The opening track, Stay Outta My Business, tackles the criticisms and double standards mothers deal with, and Bananas takes on equal pay and the glass ceiling, with some fun wordplay about bananas and melons as an added bonus.

Later, Kitty Cat grabs at the crotch of #MeToo and Smoking Gun all but name-checks the "king of the casting couch" Harvey Weinstein, warning #Time'sUp with lines like "You can run, boy, but you can't hide / The judgment day has finally come / For the man who holds the smoking gun".

She also brings these issues closer to home, singing about her family's own struggles on the heartfelt A Woman's Pain and musing: "The hand that holds the power assigns the blame / And this whole world turns on a woman's pain."

Yet somehow, despite all of that pain, anger and injustice, Sassafrass is - for the most part - a raucously upbeat, bright and colourful affair.

There's brass-filled, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, sassy-as-hell rockabilly and Neilson's stunning vocals boom above it all, sounding joyful as hell in her reclamation of power.

There are also sultry ballads, jazz-lounge-type crooning and soulful blues complete with slide guitar, all of which pack just as much of a punch.

Because, at the heart of Sassafrass is some excellent storytelling, witty lyricism and a powerful, self-assured woman flawlessly singing Time's Up at the top of her lungs.

Tami Neilson, SASSAFRASS!