Sixpence None the Richer: at The Franklin Theatre (Franklin, TN) Sat. December 22, 2012

Sixpence None the Richer

Pop/Rock

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

Sixpence singer Leigh Nash was barely older than the inelegant teens portrayed on Dawson’s Creek when her songs appeared on the show and helped propel the band to meteoric success in the late ’90s. So it makes sense that the pop act’s most recent effort, Lost in Transition, is a fairly significant departure from the simple, saccharine output of their youth. Between them, Nash and co-founder Matt Slocum have navigated their fair share of adulthood’s highs and lows (divorce, child-rearing and a bevy of label woes, to name a few), lending the duo’s songs a depth that perhaps wasn’t plausible in Sixpence’s chart-topping heyday. And it’s not simply lyrics that have been molded with experience — the sound of Lost in Transition is sparer and more soulful than previous efforts, aching and bending with a pained grace that feels just right considering its genesis. This is pop, to be sure, but refined in a way only dreamt about in the halcyon days when “Kiss Me” was inescapable.

—Ryan Burleson