Aural Fixations

AUDRA KUBAT
Million Year Old Sand
(Times Beach)
The hallowed rock critic practice of describing an artist as "so-and-so meets such-and-such" or "she's a cross between Doody Horowitz and the Prairie Dog Riders" is usually a cheap, effortless way for us lazy-ass scribes to get out of work. But in the case of Detroit's Audra Kubat, I think it's a good way to get across just how remarkable this young songwriter is. Take the jazzy folk melodies and delivery of Joni Mitchell, the sense of intimacy and nimble fingerpicking of Nick Drake and the husky voice and timeless feel of Sandy Denny and you've got Kubat's wonderful third album Million Year Old Sand. Most of the songs feature just voice and guitar, but Kubat and producer Eric Hoegemeyer of Gold Cash Gold add tasteful electric and percussive accompaniment when appropriate. There's an air of melancholy in "Tomorrow Never Comes," "She Falls" and "Lonely Child," but the somber mood never falls into depression. A brighter day rears its shiny head in the appropriately titled "Light of Hope" and the tentative but optimistic "Life Has Just Begun." "Georgia" finds inspiration in the example set by a friend ("Georgia/She is amazing"), while "Superior Sunsets" seeks solace in the beauty of the natural world. Kubat touches all the black, white and gray moods we fragile humans endure, neither pulling punches nor dwelling on the bruises. Searching for colors in the dark, and documenting them when you find them—isn't that what art is all about? On Million Year Old Sand, Kubat uses her immense talents as a singer and songwriter to illuminate the way for the rest of us. I fall more in love with this album with every passing second that it plays. Michael Toland [buy it]