Category: CD QuickTakes (Page 104 of 149)

Valerie Mih: Meridians

December 12, 2008 /

There’s something very calm and elegant about the title track from Valerie Mih’s new release. It sounds very much like something that goes perfectly on an autumn’s day with its somber but moving melody. Mih is a pianist who basically works in the instrumental mode, letting her keyboards tell the story. Unfortunately, like other artists of this style, Mih doesn’t escape the scene without a lot of this disc sounding the same. After the great opening title tune, the trio of “Flow,” “Little One,” and “Interwoven” are almost interchangeable if you’re not paying close attention. “Reflections” goes for a bit more of a sparse sound and works better, sounding like something between Vince Guaraldi and John Costa. “Saturn’s Rings” employs Mih’s accordion and also is a welcome sound. Everything on this album is very delicate yet not too ornate. It’s certainly better than other albums I’ve heard lately that fall into the same sort of musical category, but Mih could definitely stand to change up the atmosphere a bit more. (self-released)

Valerie Mih MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Instrumental

Clifton Williams and the Blue James Band: WILL

December 8, 2008 /

Clifton Williams and the Blue James Band bill themselves as “a rock, reggae, folk, and funk train riding through the world of music,” but if their second album is any indication, they’re really more like a smoky old VW bus aimlessly rolling through Humboldt County. WILL is brah rock of the first order, the kind of stuff you expect to hear blaring from the second story of a frat house on a Sunday afternoon (perhaps not coincidentally, the album contains a song titled “Sunday Afternoon”). Williams’ claims to rock, reggae, folk, and funk influences ring clearly enough over the course of these 13 tracks, but they’re all employed in the service of an extremely mellow vibe that renders them all more or less inert. It’s to Williams’ credit that most of the songs hover around the four-minute mark – most of the jamming is saved for the drawn-out closing track, “My New Window” – but they still feel curiously drawn out; the melodies wander, and the arrangements are full of noodly chord progressions that will be overly familiar to anyone who’s ever listened to a Dave Matthews Band album. And unless you really are a college student in your 20s, it’s probably best if you don’t look at the lyrics, which are heavy with searchin’-for-myself platitudes like ”Down this path I walk with uncertain steps / The life I live is a life built on hopeful promises.” In other words, don’t expect too much from WILL, but it’s excellent music for a barbecue, or the soundtrack of Matthew McConaughey’s next movie. (Chappy Payne Records 2008)

Clifton Williams and the Blue James Band MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Rock

Seal: Soul

December 5, 2008 /

Seal once famously advised us that we were never gonna survive unless we got a little crazy, and it looks like he may have been right, because few things are crazier than a slowly dying label footing the bill for David Foster to produce an album of hoary old soul chestnuts covered by Mr. Heidi Klum – and yet that’s exactly what Warner Bros. has gone and paid for with the erroneously titled Soul. It actually does make a certain amount of sense, given that Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow have recently topped the charts with their own moldy covers discs, but Seal’s Soul (try saying that 10 times fast) is a case of lost potential: Although Seal’s vocals are as fine as ever, Foster’s enervating production turns everything into dinner music – yes, even “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and “Knock on Wood.” Aside from Chinese Democracy, this is the most expensive-sounding album you’re liable to hear for the rest of the year, but nobody got their money’s worth – not the label, not the songwriters who will reap royalties for more unnecessary covers of these songs, and certainly not anyone who purchases this disc in hopes that it’ll live up to its title’s promise. Base familiarity seems to be the last failsafe path to sales for the foundering major labels, and Soul may very well find an audience with the same QVC-shopping shut-ins who lapped up Stewart and Manilow’s albums, but anyone who’s heard the original versions of these tracks should know better. (Warner Bros. 2008)

Seal MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, R&B

Ten out of Tenn: Christmas

December 5, 2008 /

Even in the low-key, relatively low-ego world of singer/songwriters, artistic alliances tend to implode as quickly as they come together – just ask fans of the Thorns and Little Village – which is just one of the refreshing elements of Ten out of Tenn, the loose collective started by Trent and Kristen Dabbs in 2004. Over the last four years – plenty of time for egos to flare and fragile artistic pride to bruise – the Ten have toured steadily, released a pair of compilations, and now introduce Christmas, a disc that is exactly what it sounds like: 10 seasonal tracks from Ten out of Tenn members. Six of the 10 are originals, and they’re all surprisingly strong; the best of the bunch might be Andy Davis’ “Christmas Time,” but really, there isn’t a bum note on the disc, and even the traditional numbers are handled with aplomb – you may have already heard “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night” more times than you care to count, but they’re delivered here with just the right combination of reverence and flair, by Griffin House and Katie Herzig, respectively. If your tastes run to the sensitive acoustic end of the spectrum, and you’re looking to beef up your holiday playlist, purchase Ten out of Tenn Christmas without delay – it’ll be a disc worth pulling out the day after every Thanksgiving and enjoying until the final strains of “Auld Lang Syne” fade in Times Square. Listening to it during the other 11 months of the year is another story, but that’s par for the course with these albums, isn’t it? (Ten out of Tenn 2008)

Ten out of Tenn MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk

Various Artists: The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs

December 5, 2008 /

Like a VH-1 dream lineup, The Hotel Café in Los Angeles is presenting Winter Songs, a collection of both original and classic holiday tunes by today’s hottest female artists. The Epic Records release is a benefit for the Susan G. Komen For the Cure, and it also benefits anyone who has the chance to hear it. Among some of the best original holiday songs in years are the unofficial title track, “Winter Song,” by Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson, and Colbie Caillat’s stunning “Mistletoe.” Some of the classics are predictable and a bit pedestrian, such as KT Tunstall’s take on “Sleigh Ride” or Priscialla Ahn’s wispy take on “Silent Night.” But Fiona Apple’s “Frosty The Snowman” and Katy Perry’s “White Christmas” are throwback versions to a bygone era, and show something you may not have known – that they both can sing very well. Taken as a whole, this is one of the more unique and semi-awesome holiday albums to be released in quite some time, and the cause should give you that much more of a reason to pick it up. (Epic)

Hotel Cafe website

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock Babes

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