This brand new album from Katie Callahan is certainly one that leads rather than follows. It is an intriguing box of tricks from start to finish toying with your senses, while not quite settling within sought parameters of definition. From a patchwork of styles and tone, THE WATER COMES BACK continually invites you to check back in creating an alluring engagement between artist and listener.
This is the second album from a Baltimore based artist seizing a welcome chance to create waves in a music community inhabited by those curious of newly discovered acts making a valued stab of adding a fresh spin to music that can fall into the cracks. Just listening to the opening three tracks from a twelve strong collection we are induced into a secular spiritual state with the spine tingling opener 'In a Garden', engulfed in a luscious pop infused effort going by the name of 'One Sided Sea' and suitably toned down in the lighter airier sound of 'Lullaby'.
Faith from a multitude of angles plays its part in the music of Katie Callahan. Implicitly the track 'Sri Lanka' recalls the terrorist attack on the church and draws the mood into one of choral chamber pop. 'Baptism' is more explicit in title and reflects Callahan's glacial vocals at their best. On a similar theme, 'I Miss God' asks questions and evolves as a grower.
While the aforementioned 'One Sided Sea' accrues most appeal from the album's early stages, the deep realm of the record sees the appealing 'I Won't Give Up' emerge as the pick. Here, things get a little stubborn but wholly uplifting. Plenty will make a valid case for the conclusive closer where 'Low Tide' ceremoniously bring the curtain down with repeated lines of the album title. A fitting moment to hand over ownership to the listener.
The term genre bending gets tossed around these days. More accurately the term genre gets shelved here as Katie Callahan just follows her whims courting listeners on the premise that they just wish to tag along. Yet tagging along in the jet stream of THE WATER COMES BACK is not a bad place to be. There is much to be discovered in the depth of the writing and ample to be enjoyed in an undulating journey that the music guides you on. Sometimes being lead by an artist following their sixth sense is right on the mark especially when the wares are as inviting as what is served up here.
