{"id":220800,"date":"2025-10-17T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220800\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T22:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:32:08","slug":"casey-dienels-my-heart-is-an-outlaw-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220800\/","title":{"rendered":"Casey Dienel’s ‘My Heart Is an Outlaw’: Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCasey Dienel<\/a>\u00a0has been in the game for a minute: Their first album, 2006\u2019s \u201cWind-Up Canary,\u201d was the work of a promising 21-year-old classically trained singer-songwriter with a foundation in piano-based pop, but also a strong adventurous streak. In the years since, they\u2019ve delved deeply into more experimental work, both under their own name and the (since-retired) White Hinterland <\/a>monicker.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet there\u2019s little in their catalog to foreshadow the kind of fully-evolved, Carole King \u201cTapestry\u201d\/ Fleetwood Mac-esque pop on display in their first album in eight years, \u201cMy Heart Is an Outlaw,\u201d which is far more approachable and conventional (in a good way) than their previous albums. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe album\u2019s lyrics are filled with themes of change, growth and transformation, and Dienel says in the press materials that the hiatus enabled them to \u201crevert to being a fan again \u2014 I went back and listened to my favorite records and I returned to songwriting the way I did as a child, just me and the piano.\u201d And although songs like the opening \u201cPeople Can Change\u201d and the effervescent \u201cSeventeen\u201d have a breezy pop air, their previous work definitely informs this album, particularly in the ambitiously multitracked vocals and occasionally unconventional melodies, which are all the more striking when accompanied by a relatively conventional, piano-driven rock backing. Yet it also goes dark on occasion: \u201cTurncoats\u201d begins with just their voice over an ominous beat before the arrangement fills out, and \u201cYour Girl\u2019s Upstairs\u201d is driven by a skronking electric guitar. <\/p>\n

\n\tDienel is a remarkably versatile singer, and many of the lead vocals on this album are in an alto range reminiscent of Danielle Haim (it\u2019s not hard to imagine this album getting a big \u201cRIYL\u201d thumbs-up from Haim fans), but their higher range gets a workout as well. There are also occasional flashes of Sharon Van Etten\u2019s early 2010s albums, and producer Adam Schatz (of Landlady, who has also worked with Japanese Breakfast and Neko Case) has created a perfect setting for the songs that evokes the \u201970s influences without being overly reverential. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut this is Dienel\u2019s show all the way: The years of experience and experimentation have led to a beautifully seasoned album that is by far their most immediate and dare we say mature work to date. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casey Dienel\u00a0has been in the game for a minute: Their first album, 2006\u2019s \u201cWind-Up Canary,\u201d was the work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,106174,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-220800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-casey-dienel","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}