Patti Scialfa - Play It as It Lays

Patti Scialfa can't utter a sentence, let alone issue an entire album, without the world scanning it for Bruce Springsteen-related subtext, so on Play It as It Lays--the sharpest, most assured, and best record of her solo career--she gives up. This beautiful, world-weary record, rich in girl-group harmonies, folk-roots rhythms, and clear-eyed lyrics, gets to the heart of what it means to be in a long-term relationship, whether it's with a rock god or a shoe salesman. There are sacrifices ("Like Any Woman Would"), concessions ("Town Called Heartbreak"), thrills ("Rainy Day Man"), and long spells of casting aside wistfulness and scraping up hope ("Looking for Elvis"). Most of all, though, there is honesty. Scialfa, a longtime E-Street band member and mother to the three Springsteen teenagers, sings these songs in the dark, grainy voice that's distinguished her from the start, but here it takes on a weightier, more lived-in quality. She's as comfortable with this material as she was with her backing band for the project--Willie Weeks, Nils Lofgren, Cliff Carter, and Mr. Springsteen himself all piled into a room in her New Jersey farmhouse for the sessions, christening themselves the Whack Brothers along the way--and it shows. Play It as It Lays is Scialfa's Born in the USA; her masterpiece. --Tammy La Gorce

Patti Scialfa Photos

More from Patti Scialfa

23rd Street Lullaby

Rumble Doll

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4-1/2 stars -- GOOD for me

For those that don't know it yet, Patti Scialfa is Bruce Springsteen's partner not only in marriage, but in music as well as a member of the E Street Band. And while her own albums have been critically acclaimed, she took her time releasing them (her solo debut Rumble Doll was released in 1993 but her sophomore set 23rd Street Lullaby didn't come out until 2004). But her latest album, Play It As It Lays, might be her best album yet.

Actually, three years off isn't a REAL long time, but it doesn't matter because there are highlights upon highlights to be found on here, like "Rainy Day Man", "Bad for You" and the title track. And if "Like Any Woman Would" makes some females take offense, all I can say is: lighten up; it's just a song. Also good are metaphors like "Looking for Elvis" and "Town Called Heartbreak".

Speaking of that song though, the only reason I knocked off half a star is because the radio edit of it at the end of the album is unnecessary. Still, despite being only ten tracks in length, Play It As It Lays is a smooth album that will make you want to do just that.

Anthony Rupert June 26, 2008

Good Shot

This album goes good w/ her husbands release on the same label, Magic. Both conjure up images of an America gone retro. March 18, 2008

Not My Cup of Tea

I am a big Patti Scialfa fan, and her first album Rumble Doll is among my favorite CDs of all time. I found Play it As it Lays to be disappointing. All the music is heavily rooted in soul, and some people may like that, but I don't. I prefer the straightforward rock of Rumble Doll. None of the songs in my opinion have a memorable hook--they all kind of blend together. February 18, 2008

50-Years of Perspective!

The influence of small town america in the 50s and 60s is resonant throughout the recording and relates to the prefeminist era. It may easily carry succssive generations of women to the girl, child, that was. Storytelling and song, pertaining to the subject of love; liberation, overcoming the "institutional face" from the blues of that subjection through the revolution of rock, country and folk; rhythms and poetics. Repetitive refrains, other than filling the space between, can bring an alternate awareness to the listener via the symbolisms portrayed in the body of the song. For example, consider symbolism of carnival prizes, a jack knife and a rabbits foot, the tokens of a first love in adolesence, a working class experience of the winds of wild fortune. Is it fun, submission, dependency, neediness? Only the grown woman can say what it was in Cry.

The interjection of pieces of early 1960s radio hits encourages a sense of that era while the beautifully integrated musical composition indicates the presence of a maturity that is reflected by the woman standing before you with the stories.

Dark Ladder comes to us as a prayer for others who suffer stereotypical judgement, those of us who live without self-realization and growth and thus are confined in an unexplainable darkness.

Patti's voice and the accompanying vocals give this work the emotional strength it requires!
Play It As It Lays - Beautiful! February 4, 2008

A hidden trasure

I highly recommend this album. The songs are mature and tell intelligent stories. "Looking For Elvis" is a grat to start with. December 26, 2007

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