Alright, I'll just warn you upfront - this review is going to get a bit more personal than most. That's because singer/songwriter Plumb has managed to come up with an album that not only sounds strikingly different from pretty much everything she's done before, but that also forces me to confront one of my deepest fears and admit that just maybe, there's not so much to be afraid of after all. That fear would be parenthood. And the joys of being a parent - specifically, of being a mother - are what Plumb's album Blink is all about.

Now forgive me if I'm over-generalizing on the topic of gender here, but it seems to me that there's this thing called the "mothering instinct" that us guys will never fully understand. My wife's certainly convinced that I'll never comprehend the full extent of that inborn need she has to one day be a mom. In all fairness, she's probably right. There's a part of me who figures that it would be good to experience being a father someday - it's one of those lifelong goals that I hope to eventually check off of my list - but it's not a singular focus and vision for me, something that I absolutely can't wait to get started on, like it is for her. (Truth be told, I keep finding reasons to put it off.) But when I listen to Plumb sing this set of soothing songs recorded for her two young boys (and a girl still on the way, I believe), there's a part of my heart that just melts. "This is what it must be like", I think. Normally, I try to picture what that experience will be like, and all I can picture is a lot of sleepless nights and stress and constant details that "big picture" guys like me don't like to spend all their time thinking about, and a hell of a lot of hard work. And I don't think Plumb wants to make a fairy tale of it, and pretend that it is not those things. But there's a part of me that, just for a moment, gets a glimpse of what that satisfying bliss must be like, that feeling you get when you hold that tiny little person in your arms, and they're finally fast asleep without a care in the world, and you think, "There is no force in Heaven or Earth that could tear me away from you right now." And that's when I finally start to fall in love with the idea.

Now I should probably extend one more warning before getting into the thick of the review - Plumb fans who like her because of her quirky, spacey take on modern chick-rock, this one definitely isn't gonna be for you. Because there's nothing even remotely approaching a slamming beat or a guitar riff of any kind on this record. It's a collection of lullabies, and it's designed with the intent that a child (and probably an adult, too) could fall asleep to it. Having said that, there's absolutely nothing here that strikes me as your usual children's music fare. There's still a modern edge to Plumb's approach, even when she's covering a pair of hymns that are likely hundreds of years old - she's decided to play up the electronic influence that underpinned quieter songs like "Damaged" or "Cut" from past records, without the usual moody nature found in the lyrics. (I love her moody songs, but obviously that's not gonna work for little kids.) While her music has never been mellower, it's also perhaps never been more colorful - the melodies are some of her strongest ever, and she's not afraid to throw in a bit of minor key for flavor, which really gives an ambient, trance-like feel to most of these songs that is as engrossing and calming as the embrace of a loving mother. These songs may be simple to understand and devoid of any irony, but they aren't Sesame Street sing-alongs are anything. They're songs that you could sing to a child, and the volume of love and genuine affection shown here is something that nobody who isn't a parent could possibly fake. Every word and every note rings true - even when the music is a tad too slight for my personal tastes. It's not a perfect record, but it's hard to find a whole lot to criticize here - just a few moments where the music could be perhaps more powerful or the lyrics fleshed out a little more. Honestly, it might be a contender for Plumb's best album, even if candycoatedwaterdrops and Chaotic Resolve might do a better job of demonstrating her musical range.

And it makes me picture holding on of her little babies and thinking, "Aw, I want one!" It's hard to do that to a guy. So she deserves some major props for that.

My Sweet, My Lovely
I stare into the bluest eyes
Time stands still in your smile
You weren't there, and now you're here...
This song has a sweet, magical aura to it that plays like a music box designed to calm a small child. That is, of course, the intent, since Plumb is singing about how much she cherishes her newborn, and how in awe she is of this tiny being as it sleeps. The strings and synths, as well as the light-as-a-feather percussion do a good job of painting a safe aura around the song, and it's easy to picture life from the innocent point of view of that little baby's eyes, looking up at the mobile hanging over his crib and the face of the godlike being who makes comforting sounds and brings him food, and picks him up when he's distressed.

God Will Take Care of You
Through days of toil, when heart doth fail
God will take care of you
When dangers fierce your path assail
God will take care of you...
Strangely enough, my favorite track on this album is one of the two hymn covers. Plumb has dressed this old melody in a beautiful, futuristic soundscape similar to Rebecca St. James' take on "Be Thou My Vision", minus the rock-oriented bombast. The minor key melody that she hums at the beginning is quite an entrancing hook that draws you into the song - it's gorgeous enough to give Enya and Sarah MacLachlan a run for their money. Its words are so simple - I actually wasn't familiar with the hymn before hearing her version of it, and these same words in the hands of many other CCM artists might have led me to believe it was just a simplistic praise chorus written without much thought, but having it placed in the context of this album, where it's a simple concept that she wants her children to know beyond a shadow of a doubt whenever they're feeling troubled, it what gives it the necessary charm. Most Christian music written for adults that sounds simplistic enough to be sung in Sunday school turns me off, so it's ironic that Plumb manages to do such a compelling job at soothing my grown-up heart with a song that she's admitting upfront she recorded for her children.

In My Arms
Story books are full of fairy tales
Of kings and queens and the bluest skies
My heart is torn just in knowing
You'll someday see the truth from lies...
This ballad approaches the format of a more conventional love song, with the lyrics still keeping it clear who it's really about, due to the little hints about "baby blues" and "curliques" and so forth. It starts with the simple, fresh-scented raindrops of a harp with little mints of electronic pixie dust in the background, and blooms into a full-bodied chorus that promises a child safety in his mother's arms as the storms of life rage around them. These aren't original metaphors by any means, and it comes dangerously close to the false sense of security offered by a lot of CCM songs, but it rings true because you know it's a mother singing to her child - she knows she can't stop bad things from happening to her baby, but she can promise she'll always do what she can to comfort him. It's one of Plumb's most passionate (and I'll admit, tear-jerking) performances thus far. You can check this one out on her MySpace - just don't be fooled by the rather run-of-the-mill dance remix that also shows up there, which completely goes against the gentle, soothing nature of the original song.

Always
I won't always be this strong
And I won't always be the one
To kiss the bruise or heal the scrapes
To wipe the tear drops from your face
But I will always love you more each day...
The idea of a mother wanting to provide a safe harbor for her child ix explored more fully in this piano-driven ballad that has slight hints of R&B in its programmed rhythm - still very light, but more defined than the percussion in most of this album's tracks. And there's that lovely harp again, just to add to the breathtaking layers of sound. It takes a gentler approach, but the lyrics hit me a bit harder in this one, because of her admission that she can't shelter her child from reality forever, but that doesn't mean that there's anything that could happen to the little one that would take away her love for him. Out of all the songwriters I've heard tackle the subject, perhaps only Sara Groves has summed it up more poignantly.

Children of the Heavenly Father
Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever
Unto them His grace He showeth
And their sorrows all He knoweth...
The second hymn cover shows up here - it's worth noting that these are the only two tracks that contain explicitly Christian language, while the rest are probably more relatable to parents of any (or no) religious background. This one also maintains the 3/4 time signature of the original hymn, just like "God Will Take Care of You", and there's a repeated, soft wave of synthesizer that serves as the backbone of that rhythm structure, with other electronic noises slinking in and out, and a thrillingly melancholy violin melody that adds quite a bit of drama to this otherwise understated recording. If you're listening to this album with the intent of falling asleep, this will probably be the point where your eyelids really begin to droop, but that's not at all because Plumb's done a boring job. On the contrary, the music she's come up with here is such a compelling depiction of dreamland that I feel like I don't want to wait any longer to pay it a visit.

Blink
I'd like to remember, I'd like to know all you are
I'd like to know everything you'll be
Where will you go, what will you do
When the world's right in front of you...
An otherworldly electronic echo gets this one started as a simple piano melody rings out into the void, joined by a gently plucked acoustic guitar, and later it sounds like some sort of a toy piano has joined the ensemble - there are a lot of charming musical layers to this song. Plumb's really outdoing herself with the fairy tale landscapes that she uses to clothe her otherwise simple pop songs. This one's about her very reason for recording this project - she wants to use lullabies like this one as a sort of time capsule, to capture that vulnerable time when her children are too young to walk or talk or feed themselves, because she feels like one day she's going to blink her eyes and they'll suddenly be all grown up, and she's not going to be able to cradle them in her arms like she used to. It's touching, and a bit bittersweet, but such is the unavoidable passage of time.

My Child
I will always protect you
Oh, and I will even let you go
I'll spend the sweetest time holding you
And will let you grow...
This is the one song on the album that might be a bit too sleepy for my tastes. It's because the rhythm of it is too laid-back - it's got more lovely strings and keyboards and everything, but the main instrument is an extremely chilled out electric guitar, providing a lazy sort of rhythm that you might expect from a Jack Johnson song. Melodically, it's not as colorful as the rest of the album either. I can really appreciate what she's saying in the lyrics, since it digs a little deeper into the "mothering instinct" I mentioned earlier - she feels like every emotion her child experiences is her own, meaning that she is overwhelmed with joy when the child laughs, and she feels his pain something awful. It's the difference between sympathy and empathy - I think I can get my head around understand that someone else feels pain, but as a father, I wonder how fully I'll actually feel it for myself.

Me
I haven't showered, and I tried to eat
But all your tears, oh, they needed me
I need some time, some time to think
But when I hear you, and what you need is me...
This one's more for all of the beyond-tired moms out there - it's another aspect of the "mothering instinct" being explored, where one's own health and personal hygiene and so forth seem to go out the window when that little voice cries out for your attention. Anyone who's been a mom can probably relate to that sheer sense of exhaustion that can be brought on by a little one constantly needing to be fed and changed and has nonsense murmured to it in a desperate attempt to just get it to stay asleep for a single hour already!, but that's the thing - for Plumb, all of that exhausting work inexplicably brings joy. Perhaps the songwriting process romanticizes it a bit, but I'm sure there's some truth to it. In any case, the music is a lovely, uncrowded piano waltz that finds her musing on how "I wouldn't trade all your love for the candy in this great big world". A bit of a silly thing to compare a mother's love for a child to, but it's childlike language, so I'll give her a pass on that one.

Sleep
Now I feel so light
My sense of movement's slowed, and somehow my tongue's tied
My thoughts are shattered, and they're making stars in the sky
And I've never felt so speechless in my life...
Plumb fans will recognize this song, because it's the last track from Chaotic Resolve remixed to give it more of a relaxed, electronic feel, instead of the pop/rock structure that it originally had, with the prominent guitar riff and all. I've never been a fan of repurposing old material on new albums, but since Plumb wrote this one when she was pregnant with her first child, it's beyond obvious that it fits Blink pretty well - perhaps better than it did on the somewhat schizophrenic album it originally came from. (I love Chaotic Resolve, but that album was a total identity crisis.) The melody and tempo of the song remain the same, so it definitely plays more like a remix than a wholesale re-imagining. She did a lovely enough job with it, letting the bubbling synths and piano take over, with a light acoustic guitar strum during the chorus - it almost plays like a soft echo of her attempts to lull herself to sleep soundly, now applied to the newborn child that occupies a crib instead of her belly. Thematically, this fits really well after the exhaustion portrayed in the song "Me" - I can picture mother slumped over in a chair, baby in her arms, with both of their sleep schedules having finally, miraculously synched up. I miss the crescendo provided by the string section in the original version, but it's no big deal, since this album isn't really about making huge, overwhelming sounds.

Solomon's Song
Dark is the night, calm is the sea
Soft blows the wind through the evening trees
Tired are the eyes that have seen all you've seen
Just let your mind start to dream...
If you're still not asleep after the last nine lullabies, this final track should do the trick. Plumb makes her best attempt to lull us into a trance with a melody she came up with spontaneously while singing her son Solomon to sleep, and later decided to write a song around. It's a pretty little composition, though a tad repetitive, since the refrain is just her singing "La-da-da-da" to the same tune as the verse. The light piano, angelic strains of electric guitar (or at least I'd assume that's what it is - it's about the softest way you could possibly come up with to play such an instrument if so), and the constant background ambiance are more than enough to accomplish the goal of making the listener "just let your mind start to dream".

So don't take it the wrong way when I note that this album is Great Music to Listen to While Sleeping. Obviously, that's the intent. And while I do hope that Plumb's next album is a return to the Garbage and Evanescence-inspired rockers she's best known for (well, actually, she inspired Evanescence, but whatever), as well as a few solid pop songs and maybe some haunting ballads designed to identify with some of the hurting souls out there, I'm quite pleased with the versatility she's shown by creating Blink, and I'll be sure to have this album handy for those discouraging, sleepless nights when I'm tempted to think, "Why, oh why, did we ever agree to conceive offspring?" If you're someone who is toeing the line and unsure whether there's any joy to be found in becoming a parent, or if you're already a parent and could just use the reminder, then this one oughta have a similar effect on you, too.

ALBUM WORTH:
My Sweet, My Lovely $1.50
God Will Take Care of You $2
In My Arms $1.50
Always $2
Children of the Heavenly Father $2
Blink $1.50
My Child $1
Me $1.50
Sleep $1
Solomon's Song $1
TOTAL: $15

Websites:
http://www.plumbinfo.com
http://www.myspace.com/plumb

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Sleeping