Angie Heaton Let It Ride CD
Angie Heaton lays it all out without the melodrama. She's honest and careful in what she expresses through her lyrics; she is thoughtful, rather than wounded. Let It Ride is made up of Heaton's country-influenced folk and a few unbeat pop tunes that were some of the strongest songs on the album. On her twang-flecked ballad, Heaton's voice breaks at points, unable to finish a line, making the songs more personal, but not awkward. Together with these slowly paced singer/songwriter jaunts, Heaton puts together a couple of really enjoyable up-tempo pop-rock songs ("Let It Ride" and "Olyvia Smiles") that break up the album and add some noticeable hopefulness and fun to the seriousness of love songs and reflective acoustic-led dirges.
-AJA PUNK PLANET JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005

Angie Heaton Let It Ride CD
Check out the new ROCKRGRL magazine with Rosanne Cash on the cover for an Angie Heaton feature. INTERVIEW
-Carla DeSantis ROCKRGRL JAN/FEB 2005

Angie Heaton Let's It Ride On New AlbumLet It Ride, Angie Heaton's first release in six years finds the Illinois artist maturing into a fine singer songwriter. While Angie clearly hasn't lost touch with her pop roots she has since developed a more diverse palette which includes everything from alt country to sad-core.
While it's easy to compare Angie to Liz Phair, Lucinda Williams, or even Juliana Hatfield it seems almost silly to make those comparisons. While those artists are obvious points of reference, Angie's songs offer a unique blend of her own musical past and the environment around her. As a result of that blend Let It Ride is an album filled with hope and optimism and a sense that no matter how bad things are they will always get better. Angie mixes up equal parts of lovelorn balladry with pop sensibility to create a sound that really reminds me of Ida or K at times.
As if to illustrate this point, "It's Easier When You're Here," and "Be Still," are two of the best sad-core songs ever written. They lilt and jangle in all the right places and they tug at your heart for four minutes. Many of the slower songs on Let It Ride come close to equaling "Easier's," and "Be Still's," simple perfection, but none can compare to these classic in the making.
While a vast majority of the songs on Let It Ride have a sense of yearning and pull at the ol' heartstrings, Angie is still able to write a great cheery pop song when need be. "Drive," "Let It Ride," and "Olyvia Smiles"
And as if to say I'm really having fun doing this Angie covers Cheap Trick on the albums finale, "Downed." It's an enjoyable ending to an album that is passionate and has big dreams.
Let It Ride is the product of Angie Heaton's experiences and her aspirations. It's happy, its sad, its jangly, its twangy, but most important of all it's a good record!
- Paul Zimmerman FIRST COAST NEWS DECEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton "Let It Ride" Parasol
Let It Ride is the third album from, Illinois Singer/Songwriter, Angie Heaton. Angie's music is a kaleidoscope of influences. Her albums lovingly assembled scrapbooks filled with torn pages from yearbooks and journals, concert tickets worn down from the washing machine, dog-eared photos of back yard parties and summer vacations. In other words Angie has created a musical space where familiarity and hominess are essential and lauded. Most songs feel like a love letter that never got mail, or a personal diary; producing vocal movements that are fragile, beautiful and real. Often the subject matter of crushes, being crushed by death and death usually run counter to her sometimes sweet voice and comfortable phrasing.
Angie's songs are rooted in olde timey Appalachia. In a gentle soprano with quiet reserves of strength, she sings about reflections on vows of faith in folky arrangements that could place her in annals of the folk greats.
-The John Shelton Ivany Top 21 #203 November 23rd, 2004

Angie Heaton Let It Ride Parasol 3 out of 4
It is six years since local artist Angie Heaton released her last record. In the interim she has honed her talents, and come up with a more confident and assertive effort that is endlessly enjoyable. She retains all of the uplifting, life-affirming joie de vivre that has made her such a crowd favorite. In addition she indulges herself fully, and never restricts her experimental urges, all to the benefit of the listener. Blending guitar pop and upbeat indie rock, the album is full of catchy riffs and lyrics, yet there is no hint of pretense or contrivance. Heaton never overproduces her sometimes minimalist arrangements, allowing her musical proficiency and love for performing to shine through. It endows each track with an inherent amicability that makes them instantly accessible.
She succeeds in defying critics’ tendencies to pigeon-hole female solo artists by comparing them to more renowned peers; the inevitable result of her creating a musical canvas that transcends genre boundaries is that she proves herself every bit as accomplished as those to whom she is compared. For though there is a degree of validity to comparisons to say PJ Harvey or Liz Phair, this lazily ignores the unique interpretation she offers. At certain points her vocals are reminiscent of The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan, in their soothing and seductive inflections. However, what Heaton also does is maintain a prosody in her vocal lines that augments the sincerity of every word she utters. And her ability to manipulate her tone to match every type of song within an extensive musical repertoire ensures that she has a wide appeal beyond that of the typical local artist.
There are a few stand-out tracks – such as the heartbreakingly earnest “moth vs flame” but Let It Ride’s greatest strength is that it is solid throughout, even the less-inspired moments considerably stronger than the majority of similar fare. On the strength of this release, one can only hope that it will not be a further six years before her next.
-Danielle Berry THE BUZZ NOVEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton Let It Ride (Parasol)
As a newcomer to the Angie Heaton phenomenon, the most striking thing about Let It Ride (her first in six years) is how much she sounds like Liz Phair. Not the recently commercially polished and slick Liz Phair who sings songs written by committee (The Matrix). It’s about the old, indie-goddess Liz Phair who put Wicker Park on the map. In fact, Heaton sounds the way Phair could sound if she hung out with the insurgent country folks at The Hideout. Her music publishing company is called Hootenannieoakley Music, after all.
Liz Phair comparisons aside, Heaton is a wonderful songwriter who opens the album with heartbreaker “It’s Easier When You’re Here,” and then shifts gears into the upbeat “Drive,” about the distance one goes for love, brought home by the line “Do you remember how far we had to drive/ The last time you fell in love?” “Godspeed The Plow” slows things down to get the point across about a woman and the people that she uses and then Heaton puts the pedal to the metal again on the exuberant “Let It Ride.”
Heaton breaks our hearts again on “Be Still,” opening with the request, “Be Still my breaking heart / I know you’re trying not to fall apart,” and shows us that she knows how to make “Lemonade” out of lemons. It’s not all shattered emotion, as Heaton proves with the same-sex love song “When Olyvia Smiles,” a soaring high-point on the highly recommended album. 8 out of 10
-Gregg Shapiro Illinois Entertainer NOVEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton Let It Ride (Parasol):
The former Tractor Kings drummer makes languid songs tinged with a bit of longing and ache, among other things. She sings with a voice that is conversational, like early Liz Phair, but sweeter and more rustic. This is music that is not quite Americana, not quite typical girl-with-a-guitar, but somewhere in between. Heaton's ingratiating personality makes such distinctions irrelevant, as she's too charming and witty, in a laid back friendly way, for it to matter. Moreover, she knows her stuff. "Drive" is like a poppier Lucinda Williams (before Lucinda starting getting all atmospheric on us), with a hook built around this simple and clever lyric "I remember how far we had to drive/the last time we fell in love". That's good. While much of the album is in this pithier mode, Heaton reserves the middle of the proceedings for two terrific atmospheric numbers. "Be Still" bespeaks a confident songwriter, who lets the space between the notes mean as much as the notes themselves. The lyrics are spare and direct, as Heaton matter-of-factly sings about her broken heart. You can fill in the back story, the general sentiments are universal and resonate. The music builds slowly in intensity, and things simmer. On "Moth vs. Flame (Bandita)", Heaton's music goes in a Southwestern direction. It's not exactly Calexico, though Neko Case's recent work would be a good point of comparison. Her voice quavers in a totally endearing way. Heaton ends the disc in fine fashion with a wispy take on Cheap Trick's "Downed". She moves as much towards Cheap Trick's power pop as she pulls the song into her earthier orbit. Another sign of her considerable talent.
-Mike Bennett FUFKIN NOVEMBER 2004

ANGIE HEATON Let It Ride (Parasol)
Falling somewhere between Grey De Lisle and Lisa Loeb, Angie Heaton's music is an alternative country/folk/pop cocktail. Let It Ride is Heaton's third solo record after stints with Corndolly, Liquorette and the Tractor Kings. The songs bristle with stunted humor and heartache, delivered with Heaton's stylishly plain vocals. "Be Still" is a poetic journey through a painful breakup and is followed by "Moth Vs. Flame," an equally troubling ballad boasting lyrics such as "the blackness of your souls is what you'll never show." But Let It Ride is not a complete downer. Heaton balances the disc with tunes like "Drive" and "When Olivia Smiles." This is a heavy album, but the emotion doesn't override the songs. Heaton strikes an effective balance on Let It Ride.
- Lance Looper Highbias NOVEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton Let it Ride (Parasol)
Welcome one and all to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. It’s a lovely couple of cities built in the agricultural land of the Midwest. We’re proud to be here. This is home to us and this is what home sounds like. Rustic and indie, Ms Heaton’s third release for Parasol combines the rural affectations that permeate the area with the sound that she helped define just about a decade ago that allowed our music scene to grow and blossom. Prime examples are the opener, "It’s Easier When You’re Here", and the title track. The former being a gentle guitar tune that gets really lush in the chorus and the latter rocking it up and taking you back to better times. Elsewhere, "Olivia Smiles" gets kinda Ronettes in its ‘60’s style production and Matthew Sweet in the chorus. And "Teach Me" lyrically sums up the sentiment of the record with a nice guitar lick running throughout.
The one setback is that it lags in the middle as the more ballad-y songs are strung together, lovely but consecutive. But that’s easily remedied by shuffling it up.
The clincher to this deal is the Cheap Trick cover, "Downed", at the end. That’ll win my heart anytime. Now I just don’t hope we have to wait another six years for the next one.
- Bryan Phelps INNOCENT WORDS - NOVEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton “Let It Ride” (Parasol 2004)
Proof that equidistant between Polly Harvey and Lucinda Williams is not the middle of the road. It’s irksome when a press release gets it right - here they liken Heaton to Tracey Thorne, Julianna Hatfield and Aimee Mann; helped out as she is here by the excellent Gina Villalobos and Ric Menck you can be pretty sure that you’re going to get something of quality. The styles differ: ‘It’s Easier When You’re Not Here’ is indie-pop, with ‘Drive’ you can feel its wheels on that gravel road, and then it’s into the slower almost ballad-like ‘Godspeed the Plow’ which recalls the Smiths and the Cocteau Twins whilst sounding like neither. ‘Teach Me’ is more Throwing Muses with its angular guitar lines, a bowling ball of a song on its way to knock down all the pins. The perfectly judged ‘Be Still’ is simple acoustic strums with drums at the pace of a hibernating heart and with swells of noise emphasising the sadness as the song creeps up on you like the actual pain of loss. Her voice often trails behind the song like a duckling behind its mother. ‘Moth vs. Flame’ allows the drums and tranquilized guitars to spike out the territory before her voice arrives, never quite catching up as the guitar quantity increases to near overdose, before dropping away again, floating along in a haze. Contrast that with the sober ‘Lemonade,’ the guitars twanging and chiming and the message life-affirming. ‘9-1-1’ starts like those soft electronic bits of Sparklehorse before mutating into something entirely different (Edith Frost battling a battery of effects pedals). The fact that I’ve mentioned so many other artists shouldn’t make you think that she doesn’t have an identity of her own - she does, and it’s one you really should get to know. www.angieheaton.com
- David Cowling AMERICANA-UK- OCTOBER 2004

Angie Heaton - Let It Ride CD (PARASOL)
Angie Heaton's third album, Let It Ride, could have been just another early-2000s Americana and singer/songwriter record to be filed away and forgotten about. All the clichéd pieces are in place — from the twangy guitars to the occasional drum loops to the dusty atmospheres — but Heaton's voice, her quietly introspective outlook, and the restrained but not rote production save the record from mediocrity. Heaton doesn't have a classic female singer/songwriter voice; there isn't much drama in her and she doesn't sing three notes when one will do the trick. The tiny quaver isn't there for show; it is there because she is trying to stay on pitch. None of which is wrong at all. In fact, it lends her songs an honest and immediate feel. Heaton sounds like a regular girl with real feelings, not a "singer" trying to sell the listener a "song." Her songs deal with universal themes of love and loss, not the pages of her diary, and they are more often than not wrapped in fine melodies and produced with a light touch that keeps her tender voice directly in the spotlight. At her best, on songs like the gentle opener "It's Easier When You're Here" and "Drive," Heaton crafts a sound that tugs on your sleeve like a kid sister, shyly telling you secrets. "Godspeed the Plough" is probably the song on the album that typifies this sound most, but the whole record will give you that feeling. Some of the album's other highlights are "Let It Ride," a rambunctious rocker that sounds like a lost Midwest Fastbacks classic; "Be Still," a downhearted ballad with some fine minor chords, sweet male backing vocals, and a very affecting vocal from Heaton; and "Lemonade," a chiming ballad with some of her most incisive lyrics and more fine backing vocals. She also does a wonderful country-rock version of Cheap Trick's classic "Downed." The record drags a little in the middle due to too many slow tunes in a row, but overall Heaton has come up with a low-key gem here. Hopefully, there won't be another six years to wait for the next record.
- Tim Sendra All Music Guide - SEPTEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton - Let It Ride CD (PARASOL)
Angie Heaton's voice may evoke Liz Phair or Amy Rigby with its wry, rough edges, but don't be fooled. Let It Ride is a heartfelt folk-rock journey down the dusty roads and endless interstates of romance. In "Drive", the line "They say that home is where the heart is / my heart's been looking for a home" sets us off on Heaton's quest.
The road gets rocky, though; the album sometimes grasps for consistency. In "Let It Ride", Heaton evokes fellow Chicago musician and former Parasol labelmate Elizabeth Elmore with a more punk approach, but most of the album is solid, straight-shooting rock. And although the wobbly "9-1-1" falls prey to the curse of mediocrity that dogs any song with a phone number in its title, gems like the tender "Be Still" and the driving "Olyvia Smiles" win us back. The album is at its strongest during the effective "It's Easier When You're Here" and "Lemonade", resonant tracks with just the right doses of twang and grit.
Lyrically, Heaton comes up a bit short on the sprawling "Moth vs. Flame/(Bandita)", where lines like "Don't go fabricating cause it's breaking my heart" trip over their own clinical clichés. However, with earnestly strummed observations like "If you're so afraid to die / why won't you give life a try" (from "Lemonade"), Heaton sets us back on the right path.
-Georgiana Cohen splendidezine - SEPTEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton - Let It Ride (CD, Parasol, Pop)
Smooth hummable pop that glides. Let It Ride, the third album from Angie Heaton, is a pure upbeat feelgood experience. The tunes are immediately catchy and the lyrics are about subjects that most people should be able to relate to. Heaton was previously in the bands Corndolly, Liquorette, and Tractor Kings but began releasing solo material in 1996. This album was recorded over a period of three years, which may explain the striking attention to detail. While Heaton's material is soft and easy, her songs are anything but sugar-coated nuggets. This young lady has a conscience and that fact comes across loud and clear in her music. Singing from experience, Angie seems to communicate straight from her heart...which makes listening to her music a surprisingly personal experience. The melodies are great...but her vocals are the real centerpiece. Lovely slick pop with a difference. (Rating: 4++++)
-www.babysue.com - SEPTEMBER 2004

Angie Heaton - Let It Ride
During the years of 1999-2000 I attended college in Champaign, Illinois. One of my fondest memories of those years is going to many, many shows put on by a woman named Angie Heaton. Her cool, clever, and personal brand of Liz-Phair-sound-with-a-cowgirl-sensibility pop/rock really struck a chord with me, as did her two solo albums I discovered shortly after hearing her first on local radio, 1996's Calamities and Restitution and its follow-up, 1998's Sparkle. After six years of waiting, Heaton has returned with her third outing, Let it Ride.
From the opening notes of “It's Easier When You're Here,” you can tell that this album is a different beast altogether from her past two efforts. Noticeably gone are the driving Jett-y riffs and the energetic speak-singing that made Angie such a joy. However, in its place is something else that she gave hints to in some of her past songs: more introspective arrangements, softer playing, and more sweetly — in some cases, more effectively — sung lyrics about love and loss. Although the quieter moments of this song are reminiscent of, say, Lucinda Williams, they're pure Angie when the brilliantly catchy chorus comes in; it's subdued, but incredibly powerful without being overbearing, reverb adding to the hugeness of it all. The general restraint may throw off fans of her past work, but the more you listen to it, the more you realize the essential elements of Heaton's work are still there, just in different clothes. The next track, “Drive,” is again, less “rock,” more “down-home” (especially in the drum patterns and the vocal delivery) but with foot-firmly-in-pop melodic sense. You'll find yourself repeating the addictive chorus of this song at random moments, then running to the CD player to relieve your fix.
“Let It Ride” shows that Heaton hasn't completely abandoned her knack for creating great uptempo guitar-pop. This one's an instant classic, much like her songs “Rollerskate” or “Flying.” It's got a great riff, solid drumming (courtesy of Heaton herself) and that familiar sense-of-humor completely shines through. “Olyvia Smiles” is in a similar vein in that it makes you want to bounce, but it's more of a stomp than a rocker, sporting a country-ish feel with her vocals taking the stage and some nice guitar work framing this ode to a friend. The closer, a cover of Cheap Trick's “Downed,” also stomps along similar to “Olyvia Smiles,” but it rocks out more — Heaton's vocal and great arrangement (especially the middle part) earning this one the honor of “the cover is better than the original.”
I also don't think that Angie's been more moving than she is on the songs “Moth vs. Flame” and “9-1-1” (no, it's NOT about 9/11 thankfully). The first benefits from a spacious, reverbed-out snare drum, some creative use of guitar feedback, and an absolutely heartbreaking melody and buildup; the entire effect of the song is like if Low were lamenting over a relationship in which one of them was treating the other badly, but the one being hurt still took it. The second features some beautiful buried synthesized flutes, a melody to rival that of “Moth vs. Flame,” great “bum-bum” backing vocals, an emotional flanged-out guitar solo, and that cool as anything double-tracked Phair-y voice. Angie's lyrics have always been something to behold, so intimate and heartfelt that even though you may not have experienced exactly what she's singing about - you feel like you have. You feel her pain, you feel her love. Sounds corny, maybe, but it's a highly effective tool that she uses to its maximum effect in these two specific songs.
Overall, Let it Ride may slightly let you down at first when you realize the majority of its material is not the driven pop of Heaton's past, but every time you listen to it, you realize that the most essential parts of Angie's music — humility, charm, emotion, and a great melody — are very much still there. It's well worth the time to let this album grow on you; the end result is very rewarding. Recommended.
-Thor Twoblock.net - AUGUST 2004

"Angie Heaton showcases her own Charming skills as a cowgirl diva" -New York Press - OCTOBER 22-28 2003

"Her sharp sense of humor, melodic deftness, and cow-punk verve are hot enough to pop her out of the corn belt."
-Entertainment Weekly's On Campus magazine