On her earliest records, Sarah Mary Chadwick sang in a dazed warble atop spare, low-key arrangements. Since then, the Melbourne singer-songwriter’s music has grown dramatically in scope, encompassing rollicking country throw-downs, showtune-style ballads, and an immense, intense album recorded on the largest pipe organ in the Southern Hemisphere. Her voice has become one of her most important tools: On many of her best songs, she unleashes a ragged, shiver-inducing belt.
“Shitty Town,” the first single from Chadwick’s forthcoming album Messages to God, is a striking showcase of that wail. It’s a howling barroom anthem for nihilists and unrepentant fuck-ups, delivered by a weather-beaten singer attuned to life at its most depressive. Over piano and flute from her longtime collaborator Hank Clifton-Williamson, Chadwick sings about a toxic breakup with her usual mix of poetry and profanity: “You left me a widow in my life/Except not a widow, you’re alive/With your shitty car/And that shitty town/Sleep with shitty girls/’Cause they’re all around.” Her voice has an overwhelming, buffeting quality, like an overblown saxophone; it’s still subtle, though, imbuing pathos and vitriol in the same line. Chadwick’s music can often feel uncomfortably raw, and she acknowledges as much as “Shitty Town” climbs to its peak: “My story’s tiresome but it’s mine,” she sings in a staggered, melismatic yowl that sounds like a rallying cry.
