A barely controlled fire underpins the music, and occasionally it flares up to great effect. The result is an album (especially "Another Song," and "Shake it Down") that tends sonically to edge toward Tom Waits' late-career territory—a little bit cabaret, a dash of calliope, plus a modest industrial sound, as in the Waits of Bone Machine and Swordfishtrombones, while of course retaining the razor-like vignettes Phillips writes so devoutly. For this, The Section Quartet, as support, deserves recognition for the pitched and exotic feel of Don't Do Anything.
Phillips opens Don't Do Anything in a state of confusion, and then finds, without drama, a certain clarity: in "No Explanations," she writes: "I thought if he understood/He wouldn't treat me this way/No explanations…She looked me over and over/And couldn't locate me/No explanation." Almost imperceptibly we know there's a she in the equation.
A number of songs represent a sort of lost-in-the-wilderness feel, but you're never worried that Phillips won't eventually find her way. In one of the albums best songs, "My Little Plastic Life," Phillips acknowledges a premonition and then ignites the fire of self-renewal, even if the result is fake and small; perfect little lives you won't find in Sam Phillips work. "I detected fire in myself/Before the flame/I burnt it all to the ground/Burnt it all to the ground/Burnt it all…Perfect was a nice disguise/It never fit/But I still have my little plastic life to remind me."
In "My Career in Chemistry," Phillips sings: "I'd rather be alone/Than with someone/Who doesn't know secrets/A little bit of code…Lie, lie, bye, bye/My career in chemistry/I still wear you, but bbbye, bye, bye."
Worlds divide, worlds collide: those are Phillips pitiless pronouncement in Don't Do Anything. With a near-stingy use of perfect language—poetry: the right word in the right place—and a pool of talented musicians lending an assist, Sam Phillips, without glee or gloom, has given us a record as profound and perplexing and rewarding as any disc released this year.
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