music

Sarah Darling

Every Monday Morning

Should you happen to pick up Iowa native Sarah Darling’s debut album, don’t let yourself get distracted halfway through and wander off somewhere. Sure, Every Monday Morning is never less than breezily listenable throughout—even if, in the tradition of the 1970s California country-rock whose influence is all over the album, that pleasant surface masks a constant push-and-pull between love and hate (not to mention honesty and deceit). But Morning saves its most convincing material for last, winding up with a winning trio of songs about dealing with loss in all its forms (“Knowing What I Know About Heaven,” “It Don’t Matter Now [Missing You]” and “I’ll Wait for You”). (Available now digitally; in stores July 28.)

• June 22, 2009
• by Chris Neal