Portland singer/songwriter Shelley Short’s new record, Pacific City, has an unlikely beginning. In the opening track, “Death,” Short’s driving along the Oregon Coast on a stormy night, wondering what might await her were she to accidentally steer off a cliff. It’s a gorgeous song (one of my favorites this year), reflecting the coast’s rough beauty like light through jagged sea glass.
“Death” sets the pace for the rest of Pacific City, which teeters at the edge of life, the earth, and certainty. Recorded with Peter Broderick at his studio on the Oregon Coast (where she was headed on that perilous drive) and released this month on Mississippi Records, it’s Short’s seventh full-length including her 2004 debut Oh’ Say Little Dogies, Why? It’s also her best yet—these cliffside meditations make for surprisingly rousing folk songs.