Patty Griffin is back with Servant of Love, an album that touches on many genres — jazz, folk, rock, blues — but what it does best is evoke feeling, one of hypnotic bliss. She accomplishes this mostly with her words and voice, as she always has, but there are other subtle touches that shoot through open spaces, like the trumpet that appears during the title track.
Haunting is an overused word, but it’s the first one that came to mind — and it’s appropriate here. At the heart of Servant of Love are two songs — “250,000 Miles” and “Made of the Sun” — that suggest time may be running short, that our love has been whisked away from sight, leaving only chills. Griffin sings on the former:
Oh, where is the daughter that I carried?
Gone to where the fears of men obey
While mother moon hangs silently but is waiting
Two hundred fifty thousand miles away
Two hundred fifty thousand miles away
This is a incredibly deep collection of songs, and its grip will take hold if you set aside the time. Listen to “Everything’s Changed” in the dark. Allow “You Never Asked Me” to move you. It will.
Grade: A