Search - Natasha Borzilova :: Wilder Days

Don't be fooled by the title. At the heart of Wilder Days, her captivating new solo album, lies an unabashedly older (and wiser) Natasha Borzilova.

That's when it hit me: I'm all grown up, she sings on the title track, acknowledging the double-edged sword of maturity. While we're less likely to make the foolish mistakes of youth, the reckless times are still close enough in the rearview mirror to occasionally entice us, and responsibility has tamed the once-heady dreams. Life, I had you all misunderstood, she says.

But this is no pity party. It's simply mature, thoughtful, engaging singer-songwriter folk-pop music from an artist never content to go with the flow, from the outset of her remarkable journey. Borzilova came to America in the mid- 90s as a member of Bering Strait, the phenomenally talented (and impossible to pigeonhole) group of Russian youngsters who generated international buzz, won hearts and a Grammy nomination, and had their triumphs and travails chronicled by a 60 Minutes profile and a documentary film before breaking up in 2006. Since then she has balanced a solo career, family and teaching yoga. She still has plenty to say, in a voice that feels like warm butter and honey.

Now in her mid-30s, she is assuredly in touch with her muse, having weathered a rough patch two years ago when she decided to quit making music. With the pressure off, a surge of creativity ensued and she soon was writing songs again. Thank goodness! Eight of the 11 songs on Wilder Days are solo writes, the exceptions being collaborations with British singer songwriter Edwina Hayes and hit writer Billy Montana and a cover of Tori Amos Oysters that allows her to pay tribute to one of her inspirations, even as she makes the song her own.

In addition to singing all the vocals, Borzilova played an arsenal of instruments beyond her typical guitars, having borrowed banjo, dulcitar, mandolin and keyboard from friends and learned to play them expressly for the album. Former Bering Strait bandmate Sergey Olkhovskiy laid down the bass on all but three of the tracks, and added balalaika on the album-closing Never Going Home. Borzilova produced again, this time sharing the production duties with John Caldwell, her husband and engineer on her last two albums.

Borzilova, while wiser, is as fearless as ever: baring her soul and following her muse from organic acoustic folk to confessional piano balladry to irresistible pop. The album opens with You Don't Need, a confident (and catchy) kiss-off with electronic accents. White Noise assesses a communication breakdown. Other themes include broken relationships, death, distance and finding a way to live in the present. Life Simplified reimagines an old melody from her teens, rewrites the lyrics and turns it into a buoyant ode to her former Bering Strait bandmates. If you don't grow up, you don't have to grow old, she sings, in a philosophical counterpoint to the title track.

With her latest effort, Natasha Borzilova proves that, even with her wilder days behind her, her best days are right now.