Thursday, September 27, 2007
JOE COCKER
HYMN FOR MY SOUL
The good news: here’s a rock icon who is still gettin’ it done with style!
The “OK” news: it’s an OK album, not great but thoroughly enjoyable.
Available at this writing only in the UK, where I hear he is on tour, HYMN FOR MY SOUL is a nice if short 10 song compilation of some of the more spiritual songs the “Mad Englishman” has put on disc. It starts out a tad like standard Cocker fare, cool, but hardly earth-shaking. As you hang in there, the end of the disc is indeed outstanding. In particular, I enjoyed his take on Harrison’s "Beware of Darkness." It stands toe-to-toe with the original and even the live version Harrison recorded on stage at Madison Square Garden “all those years ago.”
The other keepers are the compelling “Ring Them Bells,” and the closer “Hymn 4 My Soul.” They move you in a manner only the great Joe Cocker can.
BOTTOM LINE: 3.5/5 stars. A must for fans. A nice addition, if a short one, to casual collections.
PS: I must preferred last year’s HEART AND SOUL, with a total of 13 tracks including two (live and studio) of U2’s “One,” and the riveting “Chain of Fools,” that sounds like it was written especially for Cocker. In fact he opened his last USA tour with “Chain,” and had the crowd in the palm of his hand, all night long!
PPS: for those in North America, try cd-wow.com for a good price on HYMN FOR MY SOUL, they have been very reliable in my experience, and a good deal for imports from the UK.
Zeph, out
HYMN FOR MY SOUL
The good news: here’s a rock icon who is still gettin’ it done with style!
The “OK” news: it’s an OK album, not great but thoroughly enjoyable.
Available at this writing only in the UK, where I hear he is on tour, HYMN FOR MY SOUL is a nice if short 10 song compilation of some of the more spiritual songs the “Mad Englishman” has put on disc. It starts out a tad like standard Cocker fare, cool, but hardly earth-shaking. As you hang in there, the end of the disc is indeed outstanding. In particular, I enjoyed his take on Harrison’s "Beware of Darkness." It stands toe-to-toe with the original and even the live version Harrison recorded on stage at Madison Square Garden “all those years ago.”
The other keepers are the compelling “Ring Them Bells,” and the closer “Hymn 4 My Soul.” They move you in a manner only the great Joe Cocker can.
BOTTOM LINE: 3.5/5 stars. A must for fans. A nice addition, if a short one, to casual collections.
PS: I must preferred last year’s HEART AND SOUL, with a total of 13 tracks including two (live and studio) of U2’s “One,” and the riveting “Chain of Fools,” that sounds like it was written especially for Cocker. In fact he opened his last USA tour with “Chain,” and had the crowd in the palm of his hand, all night long!
PPS: for those in North America, try cd-wow.com for a good price on HYMN FOR MY SOUL, they have been very reliable in my experience, and a good deal for imports from the UK.
Zeph, out
Monday, September 03, 2007
Andrea Corr
TEN FEET HIGH
OK, those of us of a certain persuasion will admit only to our closest friends, an obsession with the Corrs, the Irish pop band with three lovely sisters (and one not so lovely brother) who have tangentially skirted the scene in the USA, but are a smash all over the UK and Ireland. The lead singer, Andrea Corr has a solo CD out now (I got mine on a UK import on Atlantic Records)…and ladies and gentleman, it’s sub-par.
The singing is superb. Ms. Corr’s voice is heavenly and sweet as always. The songs give her plenty of room to do her perhaps a tad overly talky phrasings, and they are delightful. No, it’s not the singer; it’s the production. The percussion in particular is generally way way way too disco-like, and immensely too busy. And the mix often dwarfs the subtle nature of Corr’s star power vocals.
The worst example of this is the single, that appears in radio-edit form (horribly over percussioned) and in album cut (tolerable, in fact infectious), called Shame On You (to keep my love from me). This song is clearly about the death and destruction of war and all the double talk, and in radio-edit form they make it like a Madonna dance number, YUK!
Now there are some interesting turns, for example the album opener, Hello Boys. This is a power pop almost burlesque number that will keep you guessing, even with the hyper-plectic bass line. Also, I Do is a very cute use of a click-clock bell sound as the basis of a neet little love ditty. The title track, Ten Feet High (of course) is the most Corrs (band) like, and as so very enjoyable.
My favorite lyric in the package appears in Champagne From a Straw about the poor little rich (rhymes with itch!) girl whose "man sleeps around a bit…one less job for me to do." You tell them, girl!
On the fifth (not less) listen the disc becomes a bit better broken in. But I’d suggest you plunk down your hard earned cash only if you love this woman’s voice, are a serious (perhaps wildly so) Corrs fan, or have plenty of "money for nothin’," and have the patience to wear in this CD so your ears can hear beyond the often luny production.
Last quibble: including the two versions of the above single, the album is 12 songs and only 38 minutes long. That's almost lazy in the day and age of 70 minute releases.
Bottom Line: 2/5 stars.
Zeph, out
PS: Andrea, please forgive me, I still love your voice…better luck (and less disco-ball-boom-shaka-boom percussion next time).
TEN FEET HIGH
OK, those of us of a certain persuasion will admit only to our closest friends, an obsession with the Corrs, the Irish pop band with three lovely sisters (and one not so lovely brother) who have tangentially skirted the scene in the USA, but are a smash all over the UK and Ireland. The lead singer, Andrea Corr has a solo CD out now (I got mine on a UK import on Atlantic Records)…and ladies and gentleman, it’s sub-par.
The singing is superb. Ms. Corr’s voice is heavenly and sweet as always. The songs give her plenty of room to do her perhaps a tad overly talky phrasings, and they are delightful. No, it’s not the singer; it’s the production. The percussion in particular is generally way way way too disco-like, and immensely too busy. And the mix often dwarfs the subtle nature of Corr’s star power vocals.
The worst example of this is the single, that appears in radio-edit form (horribly over percussioned) and in album cut (tolerable, in fact infectious), called Shame On You (to keep my love from me). This song is clearly about the death and destruction of war and all the double talk, and in radio-edit form they make it like a Madonna dance number, YUK!
Now there are some interesting turns, for example the album opener, Hello Boys. This is a power pop almost burlesque number that will keep you guessing, even with the hyper-plectic bass line. Also, I Do is a very cute use of a click-clock bell sound as the basis of a neet little love ditty. The title track, Ten Feet High (of course) is the most Corrs (band) like, and as so very enjoyable.
My favorite lyric in the package appears in Champagne From a Straw about the poor little rich (rhymes with itch!) girl whose "man sleeps around a bit…one less job for me to do." You tell them, girl!
On the fifth (not less) listen the disc becomes a bit better broken in. But I’d suggest you plunk down your hard earned cash only if you love this woman’s voice, are a serious (perhaps wildly so) Corrs fan, or have plenty of "money for nothin’," and have the patience to wear in this CD so your ears can hear beyond the often luny production.
Last quibble: including the two versions of the above single, the album is 12 songs and only 38 minutes long. That's almost lazy in the day and age of 70 minute releases.
Bottom Line: 2/5 stars.
Zeph, out
PS: Andrea, please forgive me, I still love your voice…better luck (and less disco-ball-boom-shaka-boom percussion next time).
