This is Valazza’s third album, a gentle, folk-inflected country record that strongly resembles the sound of Joni Mitchell. If sixties balladry—and Mitchell in particular—appeals to you, this will feel familiar and welcome.
Lyrically, Valazza explores life on the road: driving across it, sleeping beside it, leaving loved ones behind on it, and performing to pay for it. It’s a recurring motif that lends the album cohesion.
Some tracks verge on bland. The opener, “Better Highways,” rolls along pleasantly, echoing its theme, while “Roll On” ironically doesn’t roll—it’s a pedestrian cut (though you may disagree). “Your Heart’s a Tin Box” is a standout, again returning to the road as metaphor. If this resonates, Margo Cilker might also be worth exploring.
“They said get a second job / One that pays more / Two months of selling out the shows / I’d like to see where all that money goes,” she sings. It’s a sharp moment of frustration, and I’d welcome more songs like this—though, as she herself notes, things don’t always work out as hoped.
The title track closes the album and is quietly affecting. Written in a friend’s house where most of the songs took shape, it’s a stripped-back acoustic piece, Valazza’s voice tightly woven into the guitar.
Perhaps the album is a little too anchored in the sound she set out to recreate—1971, mid-summer, Joni spinning on the turntable—but Valazza proves herself a thoughtful and capable songwriter.
See kassivalazza.bandcamp.com
