Inner Adult Review by Cynthia Daniels
INNER ADULT by Terre Roche
Album review by Cynthia Daniels
Grammy/Emmy Award winning recording engineer and producer
MonkMusic Studios
“How do you express in words something whose words express everything perfectly on their own? I want to begin by saying that everyone should listen to this album just as it was recorded; in one take. As a full piece.
I’m listening to the 20th revolution of Terre Roche’s latest opus, “Inner Adult”, finding more and more to love in its sometimes stark, sometimes floating fever dreams of isolation and lost connections. They are all cloaked in plain sight in perfectly rendered authentic folk-blues guitars, either in painted shades of Charlie Patton or Sister Rosetta Tharpe in “Gung Ho” or in a voice like a mirror looking back at Billie Holiday in “Sleeping Dog”. And then suddenly “Starcrossed” brings extended jazz chords to soak us in the sweet, disconsolate story of loving sisters whose astrological fates kept unspeakable truths out of sight for far too long.It's not that we shouldn’t be ready for anything while expecting nothing, but trust has its place in everyone’s life. In most places that trust should not be broken. That theme is everywhere in this coming of age at old age album, “Inner Adult”.
There is nothing really obscure in the metaphor of a “Fish out of water” looking around, flailing around on solid ground”, but there are so many ways to relate to the rest of this shifting melodic story of complete abandonment that every trope rings out. “Wave please come and take me home, somehow I wandered off alone. But in the sea where I belong I could sing my siren song”.
There just isn’t a line that doesn’t bring me a smile of recognition at the sweet irony of a song like “Me Too”. A world where you foolishly expect one thing and often receive another, sometimes as dire as “Drastic changes just like a hurricane rearranges everything you held dear you’ll never know what happened here.” Fueled by the sudden global isolation of the pandemic, perhaps the global eye opener of the movement of accountability, perhaps by the imbalance of power between men and women, perhaps an apartment simply needed painting and somehow never got finished. You just never know on the ride that is “Inner Adult”.
Politics and family, secrets and truth are etched with Terre’s consummate humor in “The Man Who Can’t”. There is a lonely laugh on end of the telephone at the existential threat of this hilarious tune. Her jazz chops are showcased not flashily, but firmly as she sings “You seem to be waiting for me to explain but I haven’t a clue why this guy’s in such pain. Why he’s out in the darkness, the sleet and the rain. So I’d better stop singin’ and not bring ‘em again. When he tells the truth the other guy lies. When he tells the truth the baby cries.” The depth of simple unfettered perfect love is expressed in the song “Can We Keep ‘Em Dad”, but always with the Terre Roche twist. I wiped away more than one tear at first listening…and then more every time I hear it.
“Where Did I Leave the Keys” is simply a delicious slice of Terre’s wry view of our slippery hold on the reason we stick around on this crazy blue orb. Oh, it’s all just a “beautiful mystery locked up in the deep freeze”. So much more penetrating than most attempts at the conundrum that any “answers” are just beyond our reach…but oh, we once knew…
Given the history of Terre and her family, it’s hard not to place or misplace the meaning of songs like “Shoot the Crap to Me Sap”, “Hey Won’t Ya Come Back” or the bonus track and surprising “Not Funny” which transports us not only to a live audience but perhaps to the end of the universe. Such a sublime listening experience.
Terre has a signature impossible to forge, much as someone might want to try, if only to claim the message as their own – because it not only resonates with their soul, but because it is such a genuine and original art form, anyone would be proud to call it theirs.”
- Cynthia Daniels