Grace Potter
Daylight
(Fantasy)

A flumpy drum, single note organ and Grace Potter’s fantastic voice starts the song, “Love is Love,” the opener of her new album (her first in four years), Daylight. This first song rises into gospel territory at its end and reminds us, once again (as if anyone ever forgot) the pipes of this amazing solo artist.

“Every Heartbeat,” mines a sweet picked acoustic ache-for-a-lover tune, a pretty and unique take, even in the face of a lyrical concept we have heard very often. The killer slide doesn’t hurt either. Slowing things down even more, the deep tearjerker piano ballad of forgiveness, “Release,” and the mid-tempo organ swirl and heavy snare of “Shout It Out,” remind us of what Potter has been through in her near half-decade off. Divorce, the break up of her band, then her new marriage, and the birth of her first child. All the pain and emotions handled expertly by Potter and her players here, Benny Yurco, Matt Musty, Benmont Tench, and Larry Goldings.

I like the muted electric, pluck-and-pop of the verses of “Desire,” countering as they do with the big roiling backing vocal call-and-response rockin’ of the song’s naughty girl-group choruses.

The title track ends this near dozen, probably the only tune here that didn’t really work for me. The slow beginning and end, with its overly rockin’ middle sounds like Grace and the boys attempting a bad read on “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” and I dare say this fantastic lady singer overdoes the singing here.

But the other ten of Daylight are masterful gems from an artist who truly has something to say and knows well how to say it.