Album Review: Meg Mac – Low Blows
2 min read
Low Blows is the debut studio album released by Megan McInerney, with the stage name diminution of Meg Mac. Aptly recorded in Texas as well as her home country Australia, she colorizes her music with a mix of blues, gospel, soul and rock- all genres that have strong roots in America’s South.
If I had one word in which to describe Meg Mac’s music, it would have to be authentic. She proves herself to be a true musician in both in her song writing and performance delivery. She breaks the formula by shaping elements of rhythm, time signature and tempo, and bringing a combination of emotional expression and intellect to her music. Her soulful and direct voice cuts through the mix. Without being verbose, she is able to say so much; the album opener Grace Gold includes emotive vocalizations in-between her calls, “Have you heard about grace, well she’s golden”. Her choice of instrumentation is minimal and tasteful, sticking to warm acoustic tones with intermittent additions of electronica.
Meg Mac shows that her mind is full of diverse creative ideas: in Kindness she introduces beautiful sweeping vocal harmonies and the next moment we are grounded once again in the thump of the down beat. The raw gospel like vocal entry in Cages is engaging. She cleverly flicks the syllables of each word on the tip of her tongue, having this contribute to a playful rhythmic texture as heard in Ride It. She also puts her own identity on more mainstream radio friendly numbers as in the lead single, Low Blows, Maybe It’s My First Time, and Brooklyn Apartment (It’s Louder Than The TV And The Radio). In the latter, she transforms a relatable, everyday mundane experiences into a captivating narrative.
Low Blows is a stellar debut release by Meg Mac, as I listened to it I found myself turning the volume up so that I could be fully enveloped by her music.
