UTE LEMPER - All That
Jazz:The Best Of
You'll need RealAudio Player
to play sound clips. |
| 1 |
All
That Jazz |
4:04 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 2 |
Don't
Tell Mama |
3:28 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 3 |
Mon
LTgionnaire |
3:56 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 4 |
Whenever
We Get Close (We Fall Apart) |
4:21 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 5 |
Careless
Love Blues |
3:39 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 6 |
Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack The Knife) |
3:12 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 7 |
Alabama Song |
4:37 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 8 |
Nannas Lied |
3:41 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 9 |
Bilbao Song |
4:31 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 10 |
Surabaya Johnny |
6:02 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 11 |
Grand Lustucru |
3:12 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 12 |
My Ship |
2:56 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 13 |
Want to Buy Some Illusions |
2:50 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 14 |
They Call Me Naughty Lola/Ich bin die fesche Lola |
2:38 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 15 |
L'AccordToniste |
4:52 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 16 |
Vie en rose |
3:12 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 17 |
Psalm |
3:39 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 18 |
When The Special Girlfriend |
2:37 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 19 |
Smart Set |
4:17 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 20 |
I Am A Vamp! |
3:56 (Lemper, Ute) |
| 21 |
Lavender Song |
3:00 (Lemper, Ute) |
JANIS IAN - God and the
FBI
AMG
EXPERT REVIEW: It's been many years since she learned the truth "At
Seventeen," but the singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist — who
tackles guitars, keyboards, upright bass, and even banjo here — is still a
sharp lyricist who makes her points amid a stylistically diverse playground.
Thank God her lyrics don’t run as ridiculously stream of consciousness as
her liner notes, because part of the fun here is imagining her tongue firmly
planted in her cheek as she expounds on various themes. She tackles social
paranoia on the bluesy title track; gentle spirituality on "On the
Other Side," a tribute to Memphis featuring Mark
Twain imagery and Willie
Nelson's harmony voca; the powerful pain of love on "When You Love
Someone"; and even women's lib on "Plays Like a Girl." That
last tune sounds like something you'd hear at the Lilith Fair, a
proclamation that girls may be denied membership in certain boys'
activities, but the musical boundaries are breaking down. There is a wistful
sense of hope on many of the tunes ("The Last Comeback" brims with
optimism), but she chooses to close the set with the throbbing, percussive
"Murdering Stravinsky," which laments the way people disregard the
importance of traditions as they forge ahead. A solid commentary on modern
times with a lot of musical joys to be found. — Jonathan Widran
|
You'll need RealAudio Player
to play sound clips. |
| 1 |
God
& The FBI |
4:10 (Ian, Janis) |
| 2 |
On
the Other Side |
4:26 (Ian, Janis) |
| 3 |
Memphis |
5:13 (Ian, Janis) |
| 4 |
Jolene |
4:06 (Ian, Janis) |
| 5 |
When
You Love Someone |
4:07 (Ian, Janis) |
| 6 |
Play Like a Girl |
3:38 (Ian, Janis) |
| 7 |
Days Like These |
3:25 (Ian, Janis) |
| 8 |
Boots Like Emmy Lou's |
3:53 (Ian, Janis) |
| 9 |
She Must Be Beautiful |
4:42 (Ian, Janis) |
| 10 |
Last Comeback |
4:49 (Ian, Janis) |
| 11 |
Murdering Stravinsky |
3:31 (Ian, Janis) |
UTE LEMPER - Punishing
Kiss
AMG
EXPERT REVIEW: Ute
Lemper has developed a reputation as a successor to Lotte
Lenya with the looks of Greta
Garbo or Marlene
Dietrich, a northern European chanteuse with a taste for the decadent
sound of Weimar Germany; she is arguably the definitive interpreter of Kurt
Weill for her generation. Punishing
Kiss, her first album devoted primarily to songs by contemporary
songwriters, extends her reputation by incorporating the work of artists
influenced by Weill.
Many listeners not previously familiar with her will be drawn in by the
presence of previously unrecorded songs by Elvis
Costello (who contributed three selections), Tom
Waits (two), and Nick
Cave (one). But the primary collaborators on the album are the members
of the British group the
Divine Comedy, who provide the backing tracks on most of the songs, and
three compositions by group members Neil
Hannon and Joby
Talbot, with Hannon
singing duet vocals on three tracks. The sound of Weill
— the early Weill
— pervades the album, starting with the inclusion of his "Tango
Ballad" (aka "Zuhälter-Ballade" or "Ballad of Immoral
Earnings"), written with Bertolt
Brecht, from The
Threepenny Opera, a song in which a couple reminisce about the good
old days when he was a procurer and she a prostitute. Such a decadent tone
continues in Cave
and Bruno
Pisek's "Little Water Song," sung by a woman who is being
drowned by her lover, and Philip
Glass and Martin
Sherman's "Streets of Berlin," originally written for the film
Bent; in Costello's
complex tales of romantic dissolution with titles like "Passionate
Fight" and "Punishing Kiss" (reminiscent of his work on the Burt
Bacharach album Painted
from Memory); and in the characteristic Waits
songs of romantic low-life types. Among the most impressive selections,
however, are the Divine
Comedy tracks "The Case Continues," a song about a romantic
breakup written as if describing a murder mystery, and "Split,"
which finds Lemper
and Hannon
hurling witty insults at each other. From its extensive set of photographs
of Lemper
in black leather posing in a decaying building to the dramatic arrangements
and the singer's powerful, precise vocals, this is highly stylized art music
given a pop element by its composers. A daring effort, it deserves more of
an audience than it is likely to get, at least at first. (The European
edition of the album has a different sequencing and features a different
cover. For the Quebecois and French markets, Lemper
recorded French versions of "The Case Continues" and "Little
Water Song." The Japanese version used the European sequencing and
added a bonus track, "Lullaby.") — William Ruhlmann
GRAM PARSONS - G.P. /
Grievous Angel
AMG
EXPERT REVIEW: In the year before his death in the fall of 1973, Gram
Parsons recorded two superb solo albums, and Warner Brothers has
conveniently reissued them in their entirety on a single compact disc. Since
many of the same musicians played on both G.P.
(released in January of 1973) and Grievous
Angel (which appeared in stores almost exactly a year later), the
two albums flow together quite well as a single set (unlike many two-fer
reissues). And while no bonus tracks were added (on a disc clocking in at
over 75 minutes, there wouldn't have been room for more than one or two
anyway), the booklet features well-written essays on Parsons
from John
M. Delgatto and Marley
Brant, the complete liner notes from both albums, and lyrics for all the
songs on the disc (which weren't included in the original vinyl issues).
While the material and performances on G.P.
are a shade stronger than on Grievous
Angel, both albums have more than their share of pearly moments, and
this disc is a treat from start to finish; James
Burton's guitar leads are chicken-pickin' at its smartest and most
tasteful, Al
Perkins' pedal steel is the definitive sound of country & western
heartache, fiddler Byron
Berline effortlessly reveals how he became one of Nashville's leading
session musicians, and Parsons'
duets with the young Emmylou
Harris are nothing less than sublime. And would anyone who loves either
country or rock really want to be without a CD that includes songs like
"A Song for You," "The New Soft Shoe," "Big Mouth
Blues," "$1,000 Wedding," or "In My Hour of
Darkness"? While the definitive Gram
Parsons collection has yet to be compiled, G.P./Grievous
Angel gives you everything you really need from his solo career, and
these 20 performances are among the most influential and satisfying music
the genre of country-rock would ever produce. — Mark Deming
NASHVILLE WEST - Self
Titled
AMG
EXPERT REVIEW: There are a few records that can be considered
birthplaces of what has become known as "country rock." Two Gene
Clark albums, Echoes
and Fantastic
Expedition come to mind, as well as the Byrds'
Sweetheart
of the Rodeo and the International
Submarine Band's debut. Add to that list — and put it high up there
— Nashville
West, a self-titled debut by a group that consisted of Gib
Guilbeau, Wayne
Moss and two future Byrds,
Gene
Parsons and the late, great Clarence
White, and it's White's
awesome guitar work that puts this album in a legendary context. Already an
accomplished bluegrass flatpicker from his earlier band, the Kentucky
Colonels, White
took a new route on this project by going not just electric, but
incorporating a newly invented (by Gene
Parsons) device called a 'string-bender' or 'B-bender, ' which enabled White
to accurately reproduce a pedal steel sound on the six-string electric. The
results, which are all on this record, are spectacular. Aside from the
revolutionary playing by White,
the group has a forceful yet laid-back groove that, if you like it on the
first cut, "Nashville West," will have you digging the whole
record. Parsons'
drumming has a slightly soulful edge, which predates the Flying
Burrito Brothers experiments by several years. One of the best cuts on
the album is a cover of "Ode to Billy Joe," which have White
and Parsons
laying into a groove that is indescribably delicious. Ignoring the
historical value of this CD, the whole record is a hell of a lot of fun.
Vocally, not really what you'd call a masterpiece, but it doesn't matter —
Nashville
West is a record that should be owned by any fan of the Byrds,
the Flying
Burrito Brothers, Dillard
& Clark and country music as a genre. Brilliant. — Matthew
Greenwald
1.
2.
![[To Top]](jukebox/aro_upw.gif){kind=small}