Exene Cervenka
Somewhere Gone
Release Date: Oct 6, 2009
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Country, Folk
Record label: Bloodshot
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Album Review: Somewhere Gone by Exene Cervenka
Great, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
As lead singer and lyricist with X, Exene Cervenka was (and is) one of the great firebrands of West Coast punk rock, fusing pure energy and a wild, unfettered eloquence in a way that was totally her own. But after X broke up for a while in the late 1980s, Cervenka recorded a pair of excellent acoustic-based albums, Old Wives Tales and Running Sacred, that proved she could express herself just as strongly without the speed and volume of her old band. After diving back into the fast-loud stuff with her bands Auntie Christ, the Original Sinners, and the reunited X, Cervenka has returned to acoustic music with 2009's Somewhere Gone, an album that fuses spare folk melodies that suggest she's been listening to the Harry Smith anthology with bittersweet country accents that somehow make Cervenka's lyrics cut even deeper.
Based on rating 7/10
Always a busy lady, poet/punk/roots rocker/general firebrand Exene Cervenka’s year got a little more complicated when she announced back in June that she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She promised, however, that she would still deliver a record in Fall ‘09, and sure enough, Somewhere Gone, Cervenka’s first proper solo record since 1990’s Running Scared (though a few discography sites mention 1996’s Surface to Air Serpents and her spoken word record of selections from the Unabomber Manifesto). Unlike the bulk of her punky/rootsy band-related work—X, the Knitters, Auntie Christ, the Original Sinners—Cervenka’s solo work has been more folky and introspective, and Somewhere Else is certainly no exception, and couldn’t have flowed from anyone but Cervenka’s pen.