Voted DENVER'S BEST FEMALE SINGER-SONGWRITER // WESTWORD 2007
Tom Murphy,Westword July 08.
"Rachael Pollard's first full-length is filled with delicate, melancholic poetry and winsome reverie. While Pollard often sings about heartbreaking experiences with the hindsight of wisdom, her outlook and delivery are informed by a certain innocence that welcomes the pitfalls of life and relationships. Because of this, each of these tender and vulnerable songs comes from a fearless place in which there's a willingness to risk your heart and soul for the sake of love and a determination to not settle for the shell of an existence. Although the spare, emotive compositions might suggest fragility to some, attentive listeners will discover a songwriter with great inner strength and the ferocious spirit of a punk rocker rather than a shrinking coffeehouse chanteuse."
Jason Heller,The Onion, May 08"Bearing Pollard's characteristic understatement and even a dose of poignant humility, the disc's title track pairs her acidly, richly sweet voice with the eroded growl of Elden Jones. The chemistry is breathtaking, but it's also underpinned with regret and an almost fatalistic joy. "The Desert" is seared by acid cello and politically incendiary lyrics that offset Pollard's mournfully resigned minor chords. "Oops, I Did It Again"-no,not the one you're thinking of--is a showcase for her dancing, lilting fretwork, although the buoyancy is punctuated by bittersweet and darkly funny lines.There's more spirit, virtuosity, playful gravity and wide-ranging wonder and emotion in A Good Thing than you'd find in a hundred of Denver's would-be Cat Powers.Sounds more like a great,great thing."
Josh Taylor,PaperThinWalls.com July 08.
"Rachael Pollard is a true talent. As good as Will Oldham, and I loooooove Will Oldham! Get this girl in the spotlight!!! ZAP!!!! This is from Rachael's newest CD, A Good Thing. I knew that I wanted to review a song off of this album but I had an amazingly impossible time choosing which song I wanted to bring forth and share with the world.
I started by reviewing her song "Crazy For You" (not the Madonna gem) which is an upbeat and lovely song full of unicorns and heart-warming joy. And the backup vocals by Bonnie Werner (who also plays the most mind-blowing banjo riff ever on the "The Sea Surged," which is also on this CD) and Nate Marcy (who is one killer musician that is all over Rachael's new CD and is her hubby!) are like the freedom we enjoy every day! That song rules! In fact check it out at her website!! Check it out! Seriously dudes! To me, it's a mix of awesomely sick oldies radio, living in the town of Twin Peaks circa 1991, and getting some really hot eye-winking action! Boo-yah!
Then I was gonna review the song "Sweet World," in which I believe Rachael is asking our government leaders to "die die die." Wow! This song is a real call to my gun-owning soul and really, really, really makes me want to sing along and create some sort of mass manifestation of the super fantastic unrealistic kind! It's a sweet check to the head! Double boo-yah!
OK, so I'm finally going to put my money and love down on the song "The Desert." Oh god! Do you want to cry? Oh wait, how about not crying but realizing that even though the world is being super-fucked by all those dudes raping the shit out of us, we are gonna prevail! They won't win. They just won't. No way, no how. Simply based on this song, I am left wondering, Why has the world not given Rachael Pollard the biggest golden medal ever? Rachael is the coolest girl ever! Did you know she is a world-class roller-skater? Perfect!
The guitar playing is angelic. Angelic! I could float on a cloud of tears supported by Shana Vorhauer's cello playing and backing vocals. The cloud takes me to the Honeyheavenland that is Rachael's voice, where the Oklahoma twang rockets me to the moon! You know the feeling you get when you are super-duper sad and insanely happy at the same time? That is this song. That is this song!
Thank you, Rachael Pollard, for making songs like this and prevailing into the future where you will be the queen of the world. Thank you."
