Sir Woman’s If It All Works Out is the first half of a double album being released separately and months before its partner, If It Doesn’t. It’s an unusual way to release a double record: by breaking it in two and distributing the LPs independently and individually. That may not make sense economically. Wouldn’t one want to have listeners purchase a double album instead of spreading the material out and maybe having consumers forget about its companion? But after hearing If It All Works Out, I understand. The quality of the music works as a commercial teaser and makes one anticipate the future release. (If It Doesn’t comes out on 16 May.)
As the title suggests, If It All Works Out is an upbeat, positive statement that life is generally going well. That doesn’t mean all the tracks are happy. Consider a song such as “Heaven”, which sounds like a Raphael Saadiq B-side in the best sense. It’s funky, bluesy and psychedelic in equal portions. The discordant instrumentation is meshed with ambiguous lyrics that imply that one should break up, but let’s have sex one more time to ease the pain. There’s something down and dirty about the whole thing.
Sir Woman is the solo venture of Austin singer and songwriter Kelsey Wilson, best known for her work with the band Wild Child. She cites Otis Reading, Billy Preston, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone as influences. Indeed, there are many times when Wilson delivers a vocal riff that seems straight out of the Great American R&B Songbook, but this is no retro record.
Perhaps producer Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, John Grant, Sarah Jaffe) deserves credit for creatively mixing things up instrumentally. One can also hear echoes of the Brothers Johnson, New Jack Swing, and other popular black music from the late 1970s and 1980s swirled into the grooves.
The music can be frenetic. Tracks like “Circles”, “I Know Better”, and “Call Me Baby”, feature the singer freaking out vocally. Wilson seems barely contained by the layered and crazed sounds of her accompanists. On the gentler tracks, such as “Don’t Do Forever” and “Get Out of Her Mind”, the whispery intimacy of her voice suggests deep introspection. She’s not quite in love and not out of love. She exists in the sweet purgatory between the two. Or as Wilson croons on “Who You Gonna Love”, you cannot love another until one loves oneself.
The central theme of If It All Works Out is the primacy of love. The songs’ narrators make their way forward by finding love in all the right places—in one’s heart and the arms of others. That can be a physical thing as well as a spiritual and romantic enterprise. Love is not a simple emotion. It’s a complex set of feelings that can contradict and complement each other at the same time. That’s no reason not to pursue it. The material implies that love’s complexity is all part of what makes it special.
Wilson imaginatively uses her voice to express the blessed confusion that makes one question one’s motives and that of others. This album ends with her singing that she’s making her way forward. However, as we know the sequel’s title suggests, there may be setbacks ahead.