Single Review: Words

Sarah Valintine is a Tamaki Makaurau-Based poet and songwriter. Words is her latest release, and it’s a part of a more expansive project called the Pop Poetry Collection.

Valintine describes her songwriting approach as ’prose- first’ and Words is derived from this poetic method of lyric writing. Using such a methodology in writing songs is not without its own particular challenges – the text can dominate at the expense of melodic considerations, as evidenced by Dylan’s Laundry List songs (for example). In Valintines’ case, she has taken care with balancing the melodic, harmonic and lyrical content, and the scansion feels natural and musical, with no sense of it being a ‘word setting exercise’. No small feat.

The musical setting for Words is built around finger-picked guitar in a country/folk kind of vein. Around that, the skilled production and arrangement team of Tom Broome and Guy Harrison have ensured that the rhythm section work is light yet tight, and shaped some understated and musically sensitive moments in the structure and arrangement. The end result is an effective blend of the lyrical and the musical, very much evoking the mood that lyrics have set out.

Words is mature and intelligent work.