Katharine Whalen - Dirty Little Secret / 2006 MC Records / 12 Tracks / http://www.mammoth.go.com/katharinewhalen / http://www.mc-records.com / Reviewed 15 July 2006

Katharine Whalen worked with the Squirrel Nut Zippers in a past life. The tracks that individuals can listen to as the opening of “Dirty Little Secret” show that Whalen has drastically expanded eir sound since those swing releases of the early nineties. However, it seems as if Whalen has expanded eir sound by not trying to craft music at the cutting edge of innovation, but by taking hints of the styles that were present when ey was a kid and expanding them and recontextualizing them for a more current period. “The Funnest Game” is a track that shows that Whalen loved the themes from Bond movies as a kid, as the background track in the song is something that closely approximates that familiar Bond trill, while the title track is something that looks back to all of the sultry lounge singers of the sixties for inspiration.

It only takes a few seconds before a sample starts up the third track, “You-Who” that feels as if it should simultaneously be in Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” and every dance track of the early nineties. Each of the songs on “Dirty Little Secret” show a little of the melting pot of influences that has made Whalen into the musician that ey is at the current moment.

To say that the album is diverse is to only capture a small segment of it; this is a disc that could conceivably be used as a party-worthy compilation of styles. “Want You Back” is the nearest to the style of Squirrel Nut Zippers that Whalen gets during “Dirty Little Secret”. The track is still vocal-led, but the inclusion of horns during the track adds a little flair that bolsters the sly sound of Whalen’s voice. The track after that, “Long”, mixes Des’ree with Tracy Bonham to make something that brings Whalen’s voice down an octave while still using the horns that made “Want You Back” such a memorable song. The songs on “Dirty Little Secret” are all solid, but it takes listeners almost the entire disc to find the strongest song on the disc. This track is “In The Night”, and it is the drums providing a specific timing to the track that push this song from yet another one on the disc to something utterly and completely memorable. Whalen may have taken seven years to cut this album, but there is little ring rust and even less in the way of weaknesses shown here.

Top Tracks: In The Night, Dirty Little Secret

Rating: 6.5/10

[JMcQ]