If women had balls, as Elizabeth Cook metaphorically suggests in “Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be a Woman,” Cook’s would be melonesque in size. Relatively unknown, despite recording above par music for a while now, Cook is finally making a splash among critics and fans alike with Balls. The album is produced by a Nashville veteran, Rodney Crowell, and Mrs. Cook boasts writing credits on 9 of the 11 songs.
Balls opens by joyously lamenting the tough times in rock and roll and righteously celebrating the country music style that perseveres. The song stops short of saying rock and roll sold out, but it’s implied through lyrics like “reason is to feel this way / Rollin’ Stone has seen its day / all my feelings / all my fears / were confirmed with Britney Spears.” It has a comical feel punctuated by the bouncing juice harp in the background.
Bobby Bare, Jr.’s gruff intro to “Rest Your Weary Mind” provides a stark contrast to Cook’s twangy, drawn out vocals and the haunting fiddles in one of the most beautiful songs on the album. It leaves you wanting more of the same, which she dutifully delivers with “Mama’s Prayers,” a song that has an uncanny resemblance to Dolly Parton, a Velvet Revolver cover with “Sunday Morning,” the chilling “Down Girl,” and the album closing “Always Tomorrow.”
Rodney Crowell did a superb job producing the album by finding the perfect balance between fast and slow songs and placing them in an order that leads to a superior listening experience (ie: it doesn’t feel like you’re listening to an album full of singles). Elizabeth Cook comes off as refreshingly genuine in her approach to each song.
