Author: Jeff Giles (Page 22 of 41)

Oleta Adams: Let’s Stay Here

May 15, 2009 / Jeff Giles

If you’ve ever listened to an Oleta Adams record, you know what to expect from Let’s Stay Here – namely, a whole bunch of smooth, tasteful tracks that run the slight gamut between gently grooving mid-tempo numbers and velvety ballads, all topped off with her warm, soulful vocals. Adams’ voice is a singular instrument – we’re talking, after all, about a performer who earned her shot at the big time with a performance at a Kansas City bar that just happened to be overheard by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears – and its strength has never been up for debate. What she uses that voice for is another question entirely; aside from a handful of pop and R&B hits (most notably “Get Here” in 1991), Adams’ solo career has mostly flown under the radar because her records, by and large, are one quiet storm after another: competently written, tightly performed, and extremely dull. Let’s Stay Here marks her return from a long break from secular recording, but she picks up right where she left off, for better or worse – aside from the moderately funky closer “Act of Forgiveness,” this is one long episode of “For Lovers Only.” It’s perfectly fine for draining a bottle of white wine, in other words, but don’t expect to remember much of it when you’re done – and like the wine, excessive consumption may leave you feeling headachy and nauseous. (Koch/E1 2009)

Oleta Adams MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, R&B

Curt Smith Get Here Oleta Adams Roland Orzabal Tears for Fears

M Shanghai String Band: The Mapmaker’s Daughter

May 8, 2009 / Jeff Giles

Fiddles and banjos in Brooklyn? Well, yes, apparently – as that’s the M Shanghai String Band’s home turf, no matter how much they sound like they hail from some backwoods holler south of the Mason-Dixon line. The freewheeling collective, which takes its name from the Chinese restaurant where they first performed together, returns here with its third disc of rootsy tunes, dominated – as you might imagine – by the various stringed things its 11 members play. The titles are often cooler than the songs themselves (particularly “Angel Full of Bourbon,” which, let’s face it, is a title most songs could never live up to), but even if the band’s material isn’t outstanding, it’s good enough to do set a suitably back-porch mood – and Mapmaker’s best moments, like the sawdust-covered stomp “Gallows Bird,” sound like they were distilled in a greasy mason jar just a couple shelves down from Americana standard-bearers like Ollabelle and the Felice Brothers. If it isn’t quite as high-proofed a vintage as either of those other bands, it still packs enough of a punch that it should be able to take the edge off for discerning fans of the genre – and prove a sufficiently intriguing invitation to one of the M Shanghai String Band’s tremendously entertaining live shows. (Red Parlor 2009)

M Shanghai String Band MySpace page

Adult Contemporary, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk

M Shanghai String Band M Shanghai String Band CD review The Mapmaker's Daughter The Mapmaker's Daughter CD review

Spain Colored Orange: Sneaky Like a Villain

May 8, 2009 / Jeff Giles

They hail from Houston, but there’s nothing about Spain Colored Orange’s sound that will make you think of oilmen and longhorns; instead, their debut full-length effort, Sneaky Like a Villain, suggests a rainbow-colored collision between 10cc and late-period Tears for Fears, with perhaps a dash of Jellyfish thrown in. Pop fans, in other words, will find this album seriously addictive; from the moment you hear the bright, brassy overtones and sugary sweet melody of “Who Am I?” you’ll know you’re in for a treat. The set’s biggest flaw, really, is that the band isn’t content to stick with those sounds — Sneaky falters when it drifts into more ambitious territory, such as songs like “I Remember It Was Christmas Time,” whose compositional depth, though admirable, comes as something of an annoyance after the glorious melodic highs of songs like “Hide” and “Cheap Thrills.” Both sides of the band’s personality mesh perfectly, though, on “Uh Oh, Trouble,” a sprawling, vaguely “Tusk”-like epic that offers five minutes of twists and turns without forgetting the hooks. It’s clearly just an opening statement from the band, but it’s a strong one; by the time the record struts off your speakers with the kids’ chorus and trumpets that close out “The Birds and the Bees,” you’ll be ready to start it up all over again. (Shout It Out Loud 2009)

Spain Colored Orange MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

Houston Sneaky Like a Villain Sneaky Like a Villain CD review Spain Colored Orange Spain Colored Orange CD review Tears for Fears

Pilot Speed: Wooden Bones

April 24, 2009 / Jeff Giles

Imagine Semisonic’s Dan Wilson fronting U2 at its most earnest, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Wooden Bones, the Wind-Up debut from Canada’s Pilot Speed, sounds like. Stacked with widescreen atmospherics and pleasantly bombastic arrangements – not to mention lines like “It’s time to rise up from your knees” and “Today I feel sure it’s them or me” – it’s the musical equivalent of a movie montage that ends with the main character standing on top of a mountain at sunset, arms outstretched toward the heavens. The overall effect is not at all unpleasant, nor as painfully self-important as you might expect from a band formerly named Pilate; in fact, if it weren’t for a couple of songs that drain the record’s momentum, Bones would be a must-hear album for anyone who misses the days when everyone from Simple Minds to the BoDeans was using the Joshua Tree formula. Still, even if it doesn’t quite succeed as a whole, this album offers a decent assortment of tracks worth plucking off Amazon’s mp3 store, particularly “Today I Feel Sure,” which makes good use of its martial drumbeat and siren-like guitars, and “Ain’t No Life,” which melds hooks with bombast as successfully as anything in the post-grunge era. “Our focus is feeling,” croons lead singer Todd Clark in “Where Does it Begin?” – and although his band could use more consistent material, it’s that focus that may just pull them through. (Wind-Up 2009)

Pilot Speed MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

Canada Dan Wilson Joshua Tree Pilot Speed Pilot Speed CD Review Wooden Bones CD Review

Grand Duchy: Petit Fours

April 17, 2009 / Jeff Giles

If Grand Duchy’s Petit Fours sounds like an overt throwback to the uncomplicated, low-budget sonics of ‘80s indie rock, there’s a very good reason: One half of this husband and wife duo is Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis, a.k.a. the creative engine that drove the Pixies during its seminal late ‘80s/early ‘90s run. Black’s attitude toward that period has always been ambivalent at best – he’s been quoted as saying he “spent the latter part of the ‘80s doing my part to destroy the ‘80s” – but paired here with wife Violet Clark, he allows the more accessible elements of his music to surface, creating one of the most consistently enjoyable efforts of his post-Pixies career in the process. Petit Fours’ consistency is somewhat ironic, given its resolute eclecticism; not only does none of this stuff sound particularly Pixies-ish, quite a lot of it sounds like it couldn’t have been recorded by the same band. Most groups can’t run the distance between the growly garage stomp of “Come Over to My House” and the poppy “Lovesick” without falling down, but Grand Duchy serves them up back to back, setting the tone for nine tracks of genre-bending home-studio fun. Will any of it supplant Doolittle in your collection? Highly doubtful, but it’s nice to know the old misanthrope still has some hooks left in him. If Black’s smart, he’ll keep the Pixies on the road and continue writing new material with his talented better half. (Cooking Vinyl 2009)

Grand Duchy MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Black Francis Frank Black Grand Duchy Grand Duchy CD review Pixies Violet Clark