Helpful votes received on reviews:
100% (7 of 7)
|
|
Reviews
|
From the alluringly grainy photograph on the cover (we'll guess that's Ms. Holland in the picture, but we may be way off), one pegs this young artist as an 'old soul'. The music here confirms it. With songs that seem to emanate from another time and place; from New Orleans, from the Mississippi Delta, from Chicago, they, at first, sound vaguely familiar and then they begin to creep up on you and nestle into your consciousness. But it's that voice-that muted trumpet of a voice-delivered with sensuous, scat-like, hypnotic phrasing, which captures the listener and elevates Holland's music to artistry.
|
|
|
The Magnetic Fields is one of several guises that the artist Stephin Merritt records under. His last work with this 'group' was descriptively and accurately titled "69 Love Songs". We didn't buy it, although it was critically hailed, because, frankly, the sheer (and symbolic) number of numbers scared us off. Merritt gets cute with his cd's moniker once again (every song title begins with the letter of the album's title), but, at least, there are only 14 tracks this time. The majority of them are highly melodic, engaging, mostly melancholy ditties sung by Merritt (on other albums he frequently employs singers) in his arch and intimate manner. Merritt is blatantly gay, self-deprecating, and… Read more
|
|
|
If he had done nothing else his whole career, Steve (we still think of him as Stevie) Winwood would still hold a special place in our heart for being the voice of, perhaps, our favorite Rock and Roll song of all time, The Spencer Davis Group's 'Gimme Some Lovin'. Although he has never quite matched that powerful, exuberant, downright primal performance (when he was all of 16), as we all know, Winwood has gone on to have one of the more notable, varied and durable careers in pop. The most solid body of work, of course, came during his years with Traffic. His high, impassioned vocals gliding over jazzy, languid, occasionally haunting arrangements formed a hybrid heretofore unknown to Rock,… Read more
|
|
