Serena Ryder Issue #38

Is It O.K. (Atlantic)

By Laura Pearson
Published: December 1st, 2008 | 11:32am

Some bands return from the South By Southwest Music Fest with little more than hangovers, added mileage on the tour van, and mild hearing loss, but in 2007, singer-songwriter Serena Ryder came away from the Austin-based extravaganza with a major label deal: A&R people from Atlantic Records responded enthusiastically to her SXSW performances and signed the musically-driven Canadian within a month.

Among the ideas and instrumentation that drive Ryder’s U.S. debut LP, Is It O.K., are acoustic guitar, youthful abandon, love found and lost, and a range of vocal styles — raspy, bluesy Etheridge-esque sound (replete with emotive growls, as in “Little Bit of Red”); softer, country-tinged vocals (“Truth”); and big, soulful harmonies (“What I Wanna Know”). The way Ryder dramatically alters her vocal tone from song to song — and occasionally within songs — does prompt some questions: Is this 25-year-old just experimenting in finding her “true voice”? Or is this already-seasoned artist (who has toured and performed since her early teens) merely reflecting an amalgam of styles and influences?

Whatever the case, this full-length release is chiefly rooted in folk, but it is a rock-infused folk bearing the unmistakable sheen of major label production. Were this album not so slickly produced, perhaps it could have achieved the more “natural, organic” quality that critics praised in her previous releases. Yes, Ryder has traveled much and dazzled much in Canada and abroad, but how OK is Is It O.K.? Sometimes the brighter diamond is the lesser hewn.

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