iSound

The cover to Love Don’t Make You Juliet, the new album by Brandi Shearer, shows the musician bruised, taped up, fists out and ready to brawl. Listening to the record, however, you might be surprised to hear acoustic guitars, a hint of soul, and a couple of piano ballads (not to mention blasts of electric guitar and some percussive jams. But still….). At first thought, you might think, what the hell? “These songs are tough,” explains the San Francisco-based musician. “They’re subversive and creepy and desperate and sad, but at the same time, the music can be really beautiful and grooving, too.” Shearer, it seems, is somewhat of a dichotomy. She’s a songwriter tagged by critics as a “chanteuse” possessing a “whispery tenderness”….who increasingly travels to dark places in her songs. She’s an honest, heart-on-sleeve lyricist with a sly, self-deprecating sense of humor in real life. And she’s a rock/folk/jazz musician who’s quite at home discussing her love of hip-hop and classica...