Adam Breier reviews Record Player Life

In Record Player Life (the b-side), Rachel Turney invites us to dive into her collection of 45’s, those mini vinyls with the hit on the a-side and another song on the b-side. The constant truth of this hierarchy, it turns out, remains the same from when I was a kid who relied heavily on 45’s - the b-side was often richer, more layered, and shook me in ways that the hit never could. What Rachel masterfully shares, in these poems, are observations and perceptions, ranging from banal to electric, played in stereo, in a way that consistently challenged me to decide which side was which: a or b? As often as I knew-in-my-gut which was the b-side, I allowed the needle to play each poem again and kept finding that Rachel had flipped them, challenging me to think again, which I did, hearing and feeling more after each flip! I’ve already replayed them all and will do so again, hoping to plant the needle on the b-side, knowing that in truth, I’d prefer to keep searching for the b-side amongst Rachel's poems because there are, thankfully, so many of them in her work!

Adam Breier, author of An Odor of His Own