Style: Pop/rock; compare to Joe Henry, St. Vincent, Allison Krauss
Top tracks: "Magic for Everybody," "Always Merry and Bright"
Sam Phillips has made a career of choosing honesty and integrity, even when it upset her audience. Her latest surprise? To go it alone, without a major label, and distribute her work through an online subscription service: The Long Play. Subscribers get a year's access to her blog, interviews with other artists, five EPs of new music, plus a new, full-length album. Here, Phillips releases one of her recent members-only EPs—Magic for Everybody—for everybody! It showcases her poetic lyrics, rowdy personality, and an ongoing commitment to taking the road less-traveled. The sing-along title track is an artist's manifesto: "Don't let perfect make you blind / To this beautiful world / Don't erase your crooked lines / Take your mistakes and come with me."
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