Album Review: Taasha Coates - Taasha Coates And Her Melancholy Sweethearts

Taasha Coates & Her Melancholy Sweethearts takes the kind of sobering, dusty walk we've come to expect from The Audreys' vocalist.

Her first solo outing since the group's hiatus, some of the tracks may lack some of the chemistry that the pairing brought, but Coates makes up for it with a sincere intimacy. It's a blue but hopeful collection of songs, with restrained arrangements and softly reaching vocals that highlight her yearning country quaver. There's a familiarity at play in Coates' latest, which she leans into a bit too heavily at times, but it's safe, warm and utterly reassuring.