Caring and bittersweet memory-leaving. Lisa Michelle Anderson’s sophomore album Spend a Little Time puts a soft, storyteller voice in your ear with a simple personal style. Anderson’s pop-influenced Americana leads you down a road of lost emotional reflection in between sweet guitar.
The record soothes itself into being in the only way a Lisa Michelle Anderson work could: with a twangy travel song. The classic Americana picture of going out west to the Golden State with promising new beginnings makes sense for the adventuring performer that is Anderson. Not a cover of the Mamas and the Papas tune, this “California Dreamin’” gives the picture of sand, sea, and sweetness. She does add that sentimental tinge by framing the song as a “what if?” rather than a “let’s go!”
Titular track “Spend a Little Time” continues that “what if?” train by speaking to a relationship that was left behind. Anderson sings, “I would leave it all behind if we could just go back and spend a little time. I might never leave. You told me, ‘Follow your dreams.’” Between light-hearted guitar strums and picks, her lyrics intertwine memories and live experiences with wishes of return. We can assume that she’s followed her dreams, but we can also relate to her kind of regret.
“Dance Away” brings a current moment of escapism to the forefront that feels evergreen yet completely contemporary. In all of the musician’s travels, she definitely revels in the movement, shown in fun additions of electric guitar and a general quick tempo from the cymbals. However, there is a desperation there, too. On “Cowboy Heart,” she sings, “Chasing that rodeo like it’s the last day of your life.”
With song titles like “Part-Time Preacher,” “Cowboy Heart,” and “Horseshow Tavern,” Anderson brings that Americana picture along with her throughout the album. Her previous album Get to Somewhere was a folk success built on twang, and Spend a Little Time feels like its evolution, one with more introspection. She feels stalled, no matter how many countrysides she’s explored. | Krista Spies
