What is folk music supposed to sound like in 2021? In the case of Lula Wiles, the New England trio comprising Isa Burke, Mali Obomsawin, and Eleanor Buckland, the answer can be found in some combination of murky guitar-rock, haunting three-part roots harmony, and bold truth-to-power narratives that condemn the obscenely wealthy and powerful.Shame & Sedition., this collection is poised to take the group far beyond the traditional confines of acoustic singer-songwriter music.
Pay attention to really any of the lines from “Oh My God,” and it becomes abundantly clear that the target of Lula Wiles’ ire is no mere personal grudge. “Your insidious extraction won’t protect you now,” Burke sings, before leading the band into a radio-gold chorus so catchy it becomes easy to forget that Lula Wiles is singing,she wrote the song in the spring of 2020, when it became clear that the pandemic was perversely proving to be a boom time for billionaire CEOs like Jeff Bezos.