American Middle Class CD

Description

On the first half of her impressive solo debut, Presley fills her disappearing middle-class blues with sharp, compassionate tales of unfulfilled pensions steep tuition bills. Later on, the bona fide coal miner’s daughter changes gears with a series of vulnerable country-soul ballads that find her longing for some domestic stability. In “Better Off Red,” she resigns herself instead to the life of a misfit songwriter: “Cause a blade of bluegrass left a scar on my neck/anAnd it ain’t quit hurtin’ yet.” -Jonathan Bernstein / Rolling Stone / 4 and a half stars