Album Review: Amy Dalley – It’s Time

At the beginning of 2003, President Bush (then just halfway through his first term) was yet to declare the beginning of the Iraq War. Natalie Maines was yet to make a controversial statement on foreign soil and suffer the ensuing fallout. Few had heard of a curly-headed fellow named Dierks Bentley, whose unstoppable “What Was I Thinkin’” would soon become a summer anthem. And Curb Records quietly released the debut single of Amy Dalley.

“Love’s Got an Attitude (It Is What It Is)” would eventually peak at #27 in June of 2003. Not a bad showing for a debut, but Curb evidently wanted a sure thing. They kept Dalley on their roster and waited, halfheartedly dropping one or two singles a year until they unceremoniously dropped the singer herself in 2008.

After years of being stuck in major label limbo, Dalley was finally free to do things her way. She headed into the studio on her own dime to make the album she had always wanted to make.

Now, nearly six years after her first single, that album has arrived.

It’s Time is essentially a non-chronological love story, with all but two of the songs revolving around romantic relationships.

Dalley shows off some solid songwriting chops on a quintet of breakup songs that mostly manage to avoid slipping into sameness. “You Are Mine” is a plea for renewed devotion at the precipice of a breakup, while the singer of “The Bitter End” is resigned to the dissolution of the relationship but determined to make the parting as amicable as possible. “Let’s Try Goodbye” (a 2007 single) hits the road with nary a second thought, while “Friday Night With the Broken Hearted” considers the aftermath, with the singer in limbo as she waits for someone new. In “Talk,” the old boyfriend comes back to talk it over and inadvertently reminds her of all the reasons he’s not worth missing.

Meanwhile, another four songs deal with recovery and the promise of new love. Although these are a more topically homogeneous lot, their styles range from rafter-raising anthem (”It’s Time”) to assertive stomper (”I Built This Wall”) to breezy pop-country (”Loved Me Back to Life”).There’s also the good-natured “He Makes Me Wanna,” a bit of frivolous radio filler that puts Dalley’s sense of fun on full display.

Part of Dalley’s appeal is in her ability to genuinely sound like she’s just one of the girls. To this end, “Men Don’t Change” (her biggest hit to date; it reached #23 in 2004) and “That’s All I Better Say About That” are both sorority songs for the post-sorority set, speaking to and about communities of women. While the plainspoken advice of the former doesn’t always hit its mark, the song is still just a little too infectious to deny. The same cannot be said for “That’s All I Better Say About That,” a purportedly ‘fun’ song about the drunken escapades of a group of female friends that just seems like it’s trying way too hard.

Given her obvious penchant for smartly-composed, confessional relationship songs delivered in a conversational pop-country style, comparisons to a certain teen sensation are inevitable. While Dalley has more twang and better pitch than the young Ms. Swift, much of her work here seems cut from a similar cloth. Of course, she has the advantage(?) of writing from a more mature perspective, which introduces some new twists.

If you want to know what Taylor Swift might be doing circa 2020, give the two live tracks that end the album a listen. There, Dalley shifts from breakups and young love to songs of settled married life. “I Think You’re Beautiful” (Dalley’s second 2003 single) is “Our Song” settled into a mundane suburban existence, with that same girlish exuberance now coming from a woman admiring her husband through a kitchen window as he’s dodging kids’ toys with a lawnmower. The love for the boy becomes the love for the man, which becomes the love for the progeny: “Safe” is a mother’s quiet, hopeful prayer for a sleeping child. Who knew that sneaking out the window and talking real (s)low on the phone could lead to this?

If Curb had gotten around to releasing and promoting this album, it probably could have been a big old hit. As it stands, fans of good, pop-leaning mainstream country will have to seek it out for themselves. Those who do will likely find it was worth the effort – and, perhaps, the wait.