Infamous Angel (reissue, 1992) YEP ROC
9/10
SEVERAL years before she recorded her first album, Iris DeMent was driving through a small town in Oklahoma and noticed the place was largely abandoned. There were homes and businesses and all the signs of civilisation, but no people anywhere. Imagining herself in such a place, she wrote an upbeat, downcast song called “Our Town”, which gives listeners a tour of where she met her first boyfriend and where she bought her first car (“It rolled over once but then it never went far”). It’s a final glance backwards as her character leaves for good, and DeMent understands that everyone leaves a town like this for good. “Go on now and kiss it goodbye”, she sings, “but hold on to your lover ’cause your heart’s bound to die”.
Especially for a debut, is full of goodbyes. DeMent sings about empty towns, parting lovers, dying family, good times and bad times
