Late December

by Maria McKee

Product Description:

Personnel: Maria McKee (guitar); Jerry Andrews (guitar); Jim Akin (bass instrument); Tom Dunne (drums).

LATE December is an interesting and successful artistic departure for prolific singer-songwriter Maria McKee. This is her first solo album to approach the big, bombastic sound of her two mid-1980s albums with Lone Justice. Indeed, McKee finally gets around to recording "A Good Heart," a Lone Justice-era song that she wrote for former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey's debut solo album but never performed herself.

The album is stylistically varied, from the cool R&B sophistication of the title track to the dramatic, Kurt Weill-like martial rhythm of "Destine" to the spirited art rock of "Scene of the Affair," which comes off as an improbable but effective fusion of COUNTRY LIFE-vintage Roxy Music and early Bruce Springsteen. Although it's entirely unlike anything Maria McKee has ever recorded as a solo artist, LATE December is one of her most appealing albums.