Day 0937 - Come Away With Me

Norah Jones “Come Away With Me” (2002) – got it 

 

Like many people I discovered Norah via the single “Don’t Know Why”.  I feel as though I heard it through an ad for her album.  Her dreamy, breathy voice, laid-back groove and beautiful melody hooked me in.

For some people it was TOO laid-back, with Norah being unfairly dubbed “Snorah Jones” by some  detractors.  While it’s true that her brand of jazz-pop-infused-with-folk lacks the pizazz of pop, and the teeth of the best jazz, there is some good songcraft and musicianship on display.  Definitely there are enough good jazz musicians involved (including John Zorn collaborators: Bill Frisell, Kenny Wolleson and Jesse Harris) to lend her some credibility amongst the genre’s purists.

It’s not as if this is a jazz aberration.  Jones taps into the light melodic jazz sounds of Bill Evans and Billie Holliday, adding in touches of country, folk and even tango (“I’ve got to see you again”).  The Hank Williams country classic “Cold Cold Heart” is given a sultry jazz reworking.  “Shoot the Moon” has a moody descending melodic pattern.

The album is an exercise in restraint, whether it’s the smouldering but understated sensuality of “I’ve Got To See You Again” and ”Turn Me On” (a nice bluesy number where Norah’s voice builds above a murmur to really get the passion across); or the sparse arrangements, which generally just consist of minimal drums, bass, a guitar and some piano with Norah’s breathy voice over top.  Sometimes she treats herself (and the listener) to a harmony or backing vocal.

Whether or not it’s jazz is in the ear of the beholder, but I like it, and it helped launch Norah’s career.   While she has experimented a little with her music she has largely continued to just move back and forth between the jazz and country idioms.

Day 0912 - Mama's Gun

Erykah Badu "Mama's Gun" (2000)

 

Badu is another artist with a long musical history, having sung from a young age and been rapping since she was a teen.   She studied performing arts, recorded a demo and this led to her recording a duet with neo-soul aritst D'Angelo.

From there Badu's deubt album "Baduizm" was a success but she then took time off to be with her newborn son to Outkast rapper Andre Benjamin.   The relationship with Benjamin broke down and both parties expressed this through their music: Outkast's "Miss Jackson" and tracks on Badu's second album "Mama's Gun".

The sound has a bit of neo-soul going on but it's a bit of an organic, live-instrument mix of funk, jazz and hip-hop too... not surprising then that one of Badu's collaborators is ?uestlove whose group the Roots mines a similar musical vein.   Badu's voice is her game changer though.  She can to do soul singing and rap, but then on a song like "Green Eyes" she can switch into a straight-up jazz singer.

The tracks "Orange Moon" and "In Love With You" sounded familiar to me.   Good album!

Day 0719 - Automatic for the People

R.E.M. "Automatic for the People" (1992) - got it

The band did not tour their previous release “Out of Time”, opting instead to head straight back into writing new songs.

I actually find that quite admirable.  Often, bands get sucked into the treadmill of write-record-tour then, when their schedule says so, they have start being creative again to start that cycle again… whereas they might not be in a creative place at the time.  Better to nut out a string of albums in quick succession while you’re feeling inspired.

Anyhoo, the band wanted to write an album of rockier songs to contrast their previous album, but when guitarist Bill Berry, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Peter Buck got together, they just weren’t coming up with many songs in that vein.  The band were continuing their method of switching instruments to get themselves out of their comfort zone and write in different ways and ended up often not working with drums in the mix at all.

The  result was that the music they produced was quite pared back, with the drum parts being minimal, or in some instances, non-existent.   Berry stuck to clean guitar sounds, acoustic guitars and mandolins.  String arrangements from Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones would eventually garnish 4 of the album’s tracks.

Singer Michael Stipe responded to the new subdued material with lyrics of sadness and loss, with some lighter moments provided by track “Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight”.   Listening to the album as a whole, you really do appreciate what a great collection of songs it is, with even well-worn singles like “Everybody Hurts” and “Man on the Moon” feeling fresh within the context of the album-as-whole.

With regards to “Man on the Moon”, it had been written fairly early on but had remained an instrumental for the duration of recording.  Stipe felt he couldn’t get his head around it lyrically and thought it should stay instrumental.  It was only when his bandmates begged him to finish the song that he went out for a walk around the neighbourhood with the music in his headphones and came back with lyrics.

As with “Out of Time”, the band decided not to tour the album.  Making its success (presumably helped by radio/video-play and the band’s existing fans) all the more impressive.

Day 0621 - The Trinity Session

Cowboy Junkies "The Trinity Session" (1988)

The Cowboy Junkies were something of a family affair, formed by lifelong friends Alan Anton and Michael Timmins, and eventually also featuring Michael's brother Peter on drums, and their sister Margo on vocals.

Margo was originally plagued with shyness, recording her vocals with her back to the rest of the band.

This album was recorded with the band grouped around one microphone in Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity (thus the album's title).  The result is a beautiful album of minimalistic, intimate country tracks.  A mixture of  original tracks and covers ranging from Hank Williams to Lou Reed.

Day 0615 - Idlewild

Everything But the Girl "Idlewild" (1988)

Everything But the Girl named themselves after a department store advertisement that proclaimed it could provide all your bedroom needs "...everything but the girl".   Despite the skeezy origin of their name, they made beautiful, sultry and soulful music.

I was more familiar with EBtG's later more electronic-tinged music, but this was really nice.  Their soulful tunes are given a vaguely jazzy flavour due to the horn section.   Smooth as silk.

Day 0542 - Ocean Rain

Echo & the Bunnymen "Ocean Rain" (1984) - got it

According to the book, Echo's lead singer Ian McCulloch himself described this album as their definitive statement; I'd have to agree with him.

This is my favourite of the E&tB albums that I've heard.  After the sonic experimentalism of "Porcupine" where they threw everything including the kitchen sink at their songs; for Ocean Rain they stick with one audio embellishment: a string section.

The strings really add the right touch of drama to the gothy, interesting post-punk of E&tB.  They nicely complement McCulloch's voice, whether he's crooning somnambulantly or wailing with emotion.  My favourite here is probably the gothic "Nocturnal Me", but it's all good.

Day 0524 - Hearts and Bones

Paul Simon "Hearts and Bones" (1983)

Following a decline in his popularity as a solo artist, Simon reunited with Garfunkel for some successful shows.  The two of them started working on a new S&G album, but all the old arguments flared up and they broke up again.  Paul chucked Art's songs and worked some of his into a new solo album.

At the time of its release, this album didn't fare much better commercially than his recent releases, though it seems to have been reassessed with hindsight.  To me it shows hints of his next (much more successful) solo album Graceland, in that it has a good bit of groove to it and the quite '80s' sounding production.  In places, the synth laden grooves even sound a bit like that good 70s era Stevie Wonder.

It's a bit of a mixed bag, and I'd argue that the more straight-ahead mellow tracks are still his strength, such as the sombre "the late great Johnny Ace", his tribute to John Lennon.  That being said, the peppy "Cars are cars" is a fun little song, regardless of its slightly so-so lyrics.

Day 0433 - Regatta De Blanc

The Police "Regatta De Blanc" (got it)

The second album from The Police. After the moderate success of "Outlandos D'Amore" the band's label wanted to set them up in a flash studio with a high profile producer, but the band chose instead to stick with the same recording setup as their first album, the used the profits of the first album to pay for the recording of this one, whichj meant that the label had less control over what the band recorded.

The album that resulted was regarded by Stewart Copeland as the best that the Police ever made. It was the album where they fully embraced reggae to supplement and even supplant their post-punk pop sound of the first album. The influence of reggae also helped shape Copeland's drumming style significantly with his floating backbeats.

Regatta (the album title is pidgin for 'white reggae') was also a relatively even spread songwriting-wise. Sting wasn't lord and master, with Copeland contributing just as many songs, and Andy Summers putting in some too.

"Message in a bottle" is a brilliant track. The Police always had an ear for a pop hit - even their heady concept album 'Ghost in the Machine' features the light and poppy (slightly out of place) "Everything little thing she does is magic".

Day 0193 - Live at Leeds

The Who "Live at Leeds" (1970)

The book muses on the fact that the studio always somewhat deadened the energy of the band, and that the best way to experience them was live.  That sure as hell seems to be the case here, the band is explosive.  Moon's drumming seems totally out of control yet fits perfectly into the songs.  Entwistle's bass-playing pins the song down while still being dexterous and exciting!  Townsend and Daltry paint over the top of all of this.

There's a hilarious contrast between the wild rocking performance and the quiet, polite well-spoken moments in between (with the occasional cheeky interjection by Keith up the back in the cheap seats).

Day 0128 - Truth

Jeff Beck "Truth" (1968)

 

 
Hadn't really heard much of Jeff's music outside of some of his work with the Yardbirds, and his beautiful playing on the version of 'A day in the life' for Sir George Martin's "In my life" album.

This is a nice bluesy rocking album (aside from a breezy acoustic rendition of Greensleeves) with various star players featuring, most notably Beck's upcoming young singer Rod Stewart.  The Who's Keith Moon appears on one track and the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood pops up on another. Beck shines most in the instrumental tracks, but then I'm glad that it's not an entirely instrumental guitar album as the vocals add some variety to proceedings.