wears the trousers magazine

Liz Durrett
Outside Our Gates ••••
Touch & Go

Outside Our Gates, the third album from Georgia-based muse Liz Durrett is as much a city album as it is a part of the wildest wilderness. It belongs in a vast expanse of space, walking with the wind whipping through long hair; it belongs in a city townhouse window, gazing up to the sky, watching souls fly from a multitude of speeding ambulances in the distance. It is both relaxing and sad: familiar and friendly but lonely and heartwrenching, many parts of ourselves reflected back at us uncomfortably yet meaningfully. As the title might suggest, it is about the world around us, the world that we must face, the world we might try to shut out but thankfully remains in all its wonderful and most heartbreaking experiences.

Gentle strings lament love and loss, holding your hand in the aftermath while Durrett’s rich vocals saunter softly among haunting, brooding layers, creating a record as despondent and as human as one could hope to hear. Listening carefully, you might hear the crackling sound as shards of broken hearts are trampled underfoot as she ponders through the sometimes desolate landscape she creates, each pluck of her guitar a reminder that life is going on. The live sound of ‘Not Running’ is a perfect example of the predominantly acoustic sound found here, although when fused with big brass sections to bring the tempo up a bit (’Wild As Them’) the music resonates somewhere between classic folk, country and soul, at times reminiscent of a less hairy, more womanly Ray Lamontagne.

Though the majority of its songs are slow in tempo, Outside Our Gates is never boring, instead latching onto a piece of your soul with its unashamed romanticism and certain spirituality. Producer Eric Bachmann, better known as the Crooked Fingers frontman, has excelled in bringing a lushness to the loneliness. He and Durrett offer a potent mixture of uplifting hope and total sadness, a reassuring stroke to the head. And nowhere is this more wonderfully displayed than on ‘The Sea A Dream’ as a calm, gentle snow of cleansing harmonic vocals (viz. The Beatles’ ‘Because’) swirls gracefully around and down, picking spirits up as the album itself edges to a close. 

Put simply, Durrett is a real woman who wants to share herself with the world: her secrets, her hopes and her fears, all of which are showcased here with a refreshingly honest and unpretentious talent. Outside Our Gates is more than just an album, it’s a very beautiful achievement.

Anna Claxton
UK release date: 22/09/08 

FREE MP3: ‘Wild As Them‘
FREE MP3: ‘How Can I Tell You‘ [Cat Stevens cover, unreleased] 

‘Not Running’, live with Vic Chesnutt

live cover of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’