by Ljubinko Zivkovic (@zivljub)
With singer-songwriters they key has always been figuring out how to combine your music with some meaningful lyrics into a package that has a true balance of the two. New York-based songwriter and singer Allegra Krieger has been trying to achieve that balance through her previous three albums, but seems to have really achieved it on her latest effort, I Keep My Feet On The Fragile Plane. It seems that plane is a truly fragile one, as Krieger combines her childhood spent in a church with detailed travels through, as pointed out, “suburban Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland cleaning motel rooms, planting trees, tending bars, and picking olives.”
Musically, the ten songs here use subdued arrangements that combine her intricate vocals, classical piano training, and her time spent singing in the church choir, now transferred mostly to an acoustic guitar. Even when it is just her and the acoustic guitar, Krieger is able to escape the usually mundane chords, throwing in left-field elements like distorted electric guitar on “I Wanted To Be”. On “Terribly Free” she doesn’t forget to touch the piano keys with a delicate touch.
Lyrically she is also able to achieve that due balance between spiritual and daily occurrences with some delicate lyrics. On “Making Sense Of,” Kriegers sings “So sorry to say I think you’re walking the wrong way / Just turn around, facing the sun / Walk until you start to become / Somebody else, holding a flower / Call it a rose, give up your power / And place it at the feet”. In doing so, Krieger comes up with another truly worthy singer-songwriter album that works.