Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson Browne | Solo Acoustic Volume 1 | <p>The opening 28 seconds of Jackson Browne's Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 are massive crowd applause. Even its volume level gets boosted the way it did on live albums from the 1970s. Guess he wants you to know he still matters to people -- and it's totally unnecessary. The music here speaks for itself. Whether or not one appreciates Browne's recorded catalog is immaterial; his gift as a songwriter is enigmatic, unassailable, and singular. There are 12 songs here from throughout Browne's career, ranging from "These Days" and "For Everyman" to "Lives in the Balance" and "Looking East" and all points in between. There are numerous spoken and instrumental intros to the material; Browne's a fine and comfortable communicator when it comes to sitting naked and alone in front of an audience, though sometimes his humor is cynical and borders on bitter. The versions of "For a Dancer" and "The Pretender" are deeply moving as are "These Days" and "Too Many Angels." It would be easy to live without all the intros, as they merely point toward Browne and what he has accomplished, when the songs so easily speak for themselves and for him. Perhaps on volume two he'll let that happen. Despite his many asides, this is a fine and necessary addition to Browne's catalog. Still one has to wonder, with the double-disc Rhino set that appeared earlier in 2005 and these live retrospectives, when there will be new material coming from a songwriter who has had something to say that mattered in each of the last four decades. Let's hope it's soon.</p>— <b>Thom Jurek</b> |
| Jackson Browne | Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino | <p>Love Is Strange: En Vivo con Tino is, simply put, a double CD that documents Jackson Browne's and David Lindley's short Spanish tour of 2006. But it's actually far more than that. While the song titles may be familiar to fans of both men, they don't begin to tell the musical story on display here. Lindley and Browne were accompanied on all dates by the great flamenco percussionist, rock drummer, and producer Tino di Geraldo, and on select concerts by well-known Spanish musicians flutist Carlos Nunéz, vocalists Kiko Veneno and Luz Casal, banduria player Javier Mas, and others. Beautifully recorded, this set shows what Browne is capable of when he has musical foils who will not allow him to simply rest on his laurels. Lindley is, as expected, brilliant in shaping the textures and surfaces of these songs as well as highlighting the more subtle melodic touches in them, and Di Geraldo's rhythmic interactions push these two to play at their level best. The interplay between him and Lindley is near symbiotic, even on the most basic of tunes like “Mercury Blues” or "For Taking the Trouble,” where the percussionist plays tablas to Lindley's bouzouki. The Latinization of “El Rayo X,” with Browne on a baritone guitar and stellar harmony vocals by Lindley is a high point. Lindley plays fiddle on “Take It Easy,” and transforms it into something that envisions a Spanish bluegrass. “These Days,” with Casal's heavily accented guest vocal, the fiddle, and di Geraldo's cajón, makes an already beautiful song exquisite. Lindley's Hawaiian guitar transforms “Running on Empty” from its former place as a rock anthem to '70s-era alienation into a haunted warning filled with regret and loss. A full-band performance of the nine-minute closer “The Next You Voice You Hear,” featuring Veneno on duet vocals, also includes the cajón, tres player Raul Rodriguez, Hawaiian guitar, Charlie Cepeda on baritone guitar, and Nunéz's whistle. It becomes a dry, arid, funky blues that sends the whole package off on a soaring though lonesome note. This could have been an experiment that failed miserably, drenched in nostalgia and excess; instead, it succeeds grandly because of a sparse, tasteful approach with excellent arrangements and genuinely inspired performances.</p><p>— <strong>Thom Jurek</strong></p> |
| Jackson Browne | Time The Conquerer | <p>Time the Conqueror is Jackson Browne's first studio offering in six years. The last was 2002's Naked Ride Home for Elektra. Browne established his sound in the '70s and has made precious few adjustments, with the exception of a couple of records in the '80s where the keyboards and drum machines of the period were woven into his heady, West Coast pop, singer/songwriter mix. Whereas his '90s albums I'm Alive and Looking East, as well as Naked Ride Home, mirrored the personal concerns of his '70s records in more elegiac terms, Time the Conqueror returns in some ways to Browne's more overtly political statements from the '80s such as Lives in the Balance and World in Motion and weighs them against the personal, but he's all but forgotten how to write hooks. The title track is as personal as it gets; its breezy, cut-time beat and airy melody signals motion like the white lines clicking by on a highway. They underscore both time and life passing away, juxtaposed against the need to appreciate each moment. Browne accepts the blindness of the future as he does the helplessness of the past, though he doesn't accept aging. The next couple of tracks underscore this. There's the elegy to the '60s in "Off to Wonderland," a paean to the lost innocence of the heady years of idealism betrayed in both the Kennedys' and Martin Luther King's murders. The last line in this midtempo rock ballad is: "Didn't we believe that love would carry on/Wouldn't we receive enough/If we could just believe in one another/As much as we believed in John." It was wonderland, all right; these ideals were not hollow but they had no basis in American reality. The hardest rocking cut is "The Drums of War," which is Browne at his most didactic. It's as much a renewed call to arms as it is an indictment of the Bush years. It's a quickly passing moment, however, in that the very next track, "The Arms of Night," is a spiritual paean urging the listener to seek love in the right places. It's tender, confused, and authentic, but dull. "Where Were You?" has more teeth with its stuttering attempt at 21st century funk. Musically it serves more as a rock track with actual rhythm than it does funk. It's another socio-political indictment of alleged apathy in the post-millennial age. This album goes on, with no real aim other than telling us things that Browne's been thinking about these days (with the exception of the Latin-tinged "Goin' Down to Cuba," the best tune here; it's the only song with something resembling a hook). Browne seems to be speaking to his own generation; he's still trying to make sense of the world he wanted to live in and the one he actually does. Next time out, though, instead of worrying about his "enlightened" perspective, perhaps he should pay more attention to what made his earlier songs feel as if he actually owned one: craft. Most of these songs feel like quickly dashed off poems; it's all "tell" with no "show," because there isn't anything in the music to effectively offer them to the listener as conversation; instead they are on display as mixed-message sermons.</p><p>—<strong>Thom Jurek</strong></p> |
| Jackson Browne | Solo Acoustic Vol. 2 | <p>Jackson Browne gave listeners the first volume of his solo acoustic live performances in 2005. It was steeped in the gems from his rich catalog, presented with spoken word introductions to many of his best-known songs with a smattering of newer ones. The commentary got tiring in the CD format, but the music was impeccable and illustrated just how valuable he's been to American music as a songwriter. This second volume, while it does the same thing, is — in a manner — a mirror image of the first. The songs here are primarily from his later years. What's really interesting is that it doesn't matter. Browne's later songs communicate so directly that, presented in this manner, with only an acoustic guitar or a piano as accompaniment, we can find ourselves wandering around in reverie, or re-glimpsing the traces of emotion and time's passage as signposts to the way we live now. While there are a few "classic" tracks — "Redneck Friend," "Something Fine," and "Somebody's Baby" (from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack) — most of the material here comes from records after Hold Out. There are three tunes from his last studio offering, the generally ignored and underrated Naked Ride Home, which stack up seamlessly with his '70s material. Those tunes, "The Night Inside Me," "Casino Nation," and "My Stunning Mystery Companion," grace the beginning, middle, and end of this offering. In other words, no matter where else Browne goes (and he goes all the way back to "Something Fine"), he returns to the present tense, where he now exists as a songwriter. The performances of these tracks, and those from albums such as Looking East, I'm Alive, World in Motion, and Lives in the Balance, offer listeners an opportunity to hear Browne at his most elemental. His songs began this way, with a lone instrumental backing, as a melody dictating itself to words or vice versa, and were hammered out or came in the flush of white-heat creativity, but they were shorn of any adornment — just as they are here. The spoken introductions to several numbers are overly long and may have been fine for a sitting audience, but don't necessarily translate well to CD. That's a small complaint, however, as these 12 songs are quietly powerful, full of a particular craft and enigmatic gifts — no matter when they were written or recorded. Browne has never lost it as a songwriter; this is the proof. If you went to the trouble to purchase the first volume, this is an essential counterpart.</p><strong>— Thom Jurek</strong> |
| Jackson Browne | Standing In The Breach | <p>On Jackson Browne's first studio recording since 2008, the man who defined the '70s singer/songwriter generation finds a fresh way of dealing with the world as it is both personally and politically -- by going back to his own roots. Lyrically, Browne is inspired in a way he hasn't been since 1976's The Pretender, and this recording's production aesthetic adheres closer to that of even earlier records. His core accompanists are guitarists Greg Leisz and Val McCallum, with an all-star cast. Socio-political songs are plentiful, but these come from an intimate -- and therefore more appealing -- perspective; he often uses personal memory to frame his concerns. The opener is a (finally) finished version of "The Birds of St. Marks," a song begun in 1967 and performed live intermittently but never recorded in a studio. Its sound harkens back to the the Byrds. Jangly guitars and an electric 12-string solo frame its introspective lyrics. "Yeah Yeah" borrows the changes from Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" and pulls them off anew in a love song: "And you paid for the love that we've got, you paid/And you made for the heart when we fought and you stayed…" "Leaving Winslow" is a West Coast country song whose locale was namechecked in "Take It Easy," yet this isn't an exercise in nostalgia but a solid, and sometimes humorous, paean to acceptance and the desire to disappear.</p> <p>Few writers could deliver a poignant song where surfing transitions to environmentalism and the historical consequences of empire. Browne can, and does -- with obvious melodic inspiration from Paul McCartney -- on "If I Could Be Anywhere," where step by step, the political is equated with personal responsibility. There are two exceptional covers that introduce the record's latter half. Both are stellar love songs that are nonetheless topical, and both are by true song poets. The first is a stunning folk-rock arrangement of Woody Guthrie's "You Know the Night," while "Walls and Doors" is a translation of Cuban songwriter/guitarist Carlos Varela's "Las Paredes y Puertas," and features him and his trio. The latter is a lilting romantic ballad, arranged to underscore both the composer's and Browne's personas. Only "Which Side Are You On" sounds "preachy," but that's because it is; it employs the same gospel-blues lyric scheme Bob Dylan did on "You Gotta Serve Somebody" but to secular ends. The title track, led by the songwriter and his piano, is a testament to the power of irrepressible hope and resilience: "Though the world may tremble and our foundations crack/We will all assemble and we will build them back." Closer "Here" is one of Browne's classic broken love songs; its sadness echoes long after the album whispers to a close. Standing in the Breach is a back to the basics Browne album, and is all the better for it. He's no longer speaking at anyone, but conversing from the well of his own experience.</p><p>—<string>Thom Jurek</strong></p><hr/><p>"It's never been that hard to buy a gun/Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone," muses Jackson Browne midway through "The Long Way Around," balancing America's pursuit of freedom with the notion of consequence. Even in what the singer/songwriter can't embrace, he seeks compassion as piano chords fall like soft rain, ultimately offering, "With all we disagree about/The passions burn, the heart goes out…"</p><p>Browne has always led a double life: sensitive singer/songwriter and committed activist. During his 40-year career, there's been a tug of war between the romantic poet and the surging outcry. On Standing In The Breach, his first album since 2008's Time The Conqueror, the Southern California soft rock icon seamlessly reconciles the two.</p><p>Drawing on touchstones from his past, most notably The Pretender, Late for the Sky and For Everyman, he embraces his past without getting mired in the temple of who he used to be. His past is vibrant, but the shimmering melodies and tracks' spaciousness lends Breach immediacy.</p><p>Browne also reinvents Lou Reed—taking the changes of "Sweet Jane" and writing a forged-by-mingled-lives love song "Yeah Yeah"—and Bob Dylan—recasting the churning "Gotta Serve Somebody" in a more personal reckoning/invitation "Which Side?"—in far more hopeful terms. He even invokes "Take It Easy," Browne's co-written '70s Eagles anthem, with the train-beat rootlessness of "Leaving Winslow."</p><p>He understands the chambers and echoes of the heart. The haunted "Here" embodies the numb vertigo of a lover's absence, while the mythic "The Birds of St Marks," begun in 1967 and played sporadically live but never recorded, weighs the costs and loss in love from a young man's eye.</p><p>That idealism permeates the twang of "You Know The Night," a song of desire realized through the prism of awareness—drawn from 15 pages of Woody Guthrie's journals. The same ardor infused with seeking a higher world entwines Carlos Varela's "Windows + Doors," Varela providing plangent echo vocals as the song finds a hushed climax.</p><p>Unlike Pete Seeger, Browne's activism never drowned the lover inside. For Breach, the two merge with an intoxicating sense; the personal elevates the political. "Breach" delicately offers optimism beneath its reckoning, while "If I Could Be Anywhere" tackles hard truth, love and the notion this is where he chooses to make his stand.</p><p>But it's "The Long Way Around," where his misspent youth and our cultural mandates merge in a wake-up call as he name-checks Citizens United and the Gulf oil spill. Here acceptance isn't acquiescence, but the suggestion coming together is the only chance we have. For Browne, Breach is the best of all worlds.</p><p>—<strong>Holly Gleason</strong></p> |
| Jack Bruce | Somethin' Els | <p>Reunited with long-time collaborator Pete Brown, Jack Bruce turns in one of the finest albums of his solo career, with songs that come close to matching the splendor of his work with Cream.</p>— <b>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</b> |
| Jack Bruce | Cities Of The Heart | <p>This nicely packaged two-CD box set presents legendary rock bassist/vocalist/composer Jack Bruce and his very reputable musical associates performing live in Cologne, Germany. Originally touted as a limited-edition double CD upon its release in 1993, the CMP label subsequently witnessed production/distribution problems, yet in 2001 it seemed as though the German fusion/rock record label might commence reissuing some CDs from its impressive back catalog. These two discs intimate an intriguing insight into Bruce's career, other than his well-known affiliation with '60s rock power trio Cream. Here, the artist renders a few soulful ballads, ventures into free jazz territory with saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker, and also utilizes a brass section for a sprightly R&B rendition of "Born Under a Bad Sign." An added treat here is the teaming of British guitar hero Gary Moore with Bruce and Baker for a series of hard rock-blues pieces culled from the Cream songbook.</p><p>— <b>Glenn Astarita</b></p><h6>Tracks</h6><h5>1. Can You Follow </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce; vocals, piano</p><p>The concert starts with just Jack on his piano, and singing of course.</p><hr/><h5>2. Running Thro' Our Hands </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, piano</p><p>Gary Husband: keyboards</p><p>Still a beautiful song.</p><hr/><h5>3. Over The Cliff </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith: saxophone</p><p>Ginger Baker: drums</p><p>These guys immediately got the atmosphere of that good jazz from "Things we like". Really great bass playing by Jack, with that rhytmic power of Ginger Baker backing him up. The quality of Dick Heckstall-Smith needs no further explanation.</p><hr/><h5>4. Statues </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith: saxophone </p><p>Ginger Baker: drums</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith shows that he is still a great saxophone player.</p><hr/><h5>5. First Time I Met The Blues </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass, vocals</p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Dick-Heckstall-Smith: saxophone </p><p>Ginger Baker: drums</p><p>Yes, here's the blues. You can sense that these four musicians really enjoy playing together. Some great guitar solos by Clem Clempson. But don't forget they're used to playing together (Clem and Dick in Colosseum and Jack and Ginger in the Cream, and of course Clem and Dick have played together with Jack on several recordings).</p><hr/><h5>6. Smiles And Grins </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass, vocals, piano </p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar ;</p><p>Dick-Heckstall-Smith: saxophone </p><p>Art Themen: saxophone ;</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ </p><p>Malcolm Bruce: synthesizer ;</p><p>Gary Husband: drums</p><p>This version is even better than the original one on the Harmony Row album. Partly because it is such a perfect song to perform live, and partly because of the addition of the saxophones. Besides that, Clem Clempson plays a different style of guitar playing than Chris Spedding. And last but not least, it's Bernie Worrell on the hammond organ!</p><hr/><h5>7. Bird Alone </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass, vocals </p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ, piano </p><p>Gary Husband: drums</p><p>Great up-tempo song, with these driving bass and guitar lines. Jack singing this one real fast. He can hardly keep up with himself. The second part of the song is much slower, but has still so much power.</p><hr/><h5>8. Neighbor, Neighbor </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass, vocals</p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith: saxophone</p><p>Art Themen: saxophone</p><p>Henry Lowther: trumpet</p><p>John Mumford: trombone</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ </p><p>Simon Phillips: drums</p><p>As you can see on the line-up, this is a more jazzy song, with a blues feeling to it. I love that saxophone solo in the middle of the song. Lovely guitar solo by Clem Clempson.</p><hr/><h5>9. Born Under A Bad Sign </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: bass, vocals</p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith: saxophone </p><p>Art Themen: saxophone</p><p>Henry Lowther: trumpet</p><p>John Mumford: trombone</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ </p><p>Jason Bruce: piano</p><p>Simon Phillips: drums</p><p>A classical one, that we all know from the Cream. These horns give this song that little extra that makes it different from other performances. Good guitar playing by Clem Clempson (I've always liked the Jack Bruce recordings on which he participates).</p><hr/><h5>10. Ships In The Night </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals</p><p>Maggie Reilly: vocals</p><p>Clem Clempson: acoustic and electric guitar</p><p>Malcolm Bruce: acoustic guitar</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ</p><p>Gary Husband; piano</p><p>François Garny: bass</p><p>Simon Phillips; drums</p><p>As I stated on the "Willpower" review, this is a great song. I do like the studio recording better. An exception i want to make for that beautiful guitar solo by Clem Clempson.</p><hr/><h5>11. Never Tell Your Mother She's Out Of Tune </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals</p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith: saxophone</p><p>Art Themen: saxophone</p><p>Henry Lowther: trumpet</p><p>John Mumford: trombone</p><p>François Garny: bass</p><p>Simon Phillips: drums</p><p>One of my all time favorites. They could have played this one a bit faster. it's losing a bit of it's power, that was so typical for this song</p><hr/><h5>12. Theme For An Imaginary Western</h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, piano</p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ</p><p>François Garny: bass</p><p>Simon Phillips; drums</p><p>Classical Jack Bruce song, performed also by several other bands / performers, such as Colosseum and Leslie West. i repeat myself, but Clem Clempson is doing a real great job in this concert. I love the contrast with the Gary Moore performances in this concert (Clem playing melodious, laid back and Gary playing more heavy).</p><hr/><h5>13. Golden Days </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, piano ;</p><p>Gary "Mudbone" Cooper: vocals</p><p>Clem Clempson: acoustic guitar</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ</p><p>François Garny: bass ;</p><p>Simon Phillips; drums</p><p>Jack and "Mudbone" complementing each other perfectly.</p><hr/><h5>14. Life On Earth </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, bass</p><p>Gary Moore: guitar</p><p>Simon Phillips: drums</p><p>From here the concert changes. Only guitar, bass and drums left, together of course with the vocals. I can be wrong, but I had the impression, looking at the concert, that Jack especially liked this part. Until this moment, the concert was good, but from here on it got more powerful, with plenty of room for improvising.</p><hr/><h5>15. NSU </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, bass</p><p>Gary Moore: guitar, vocals</p><p>Ginger Baker; drums</p><p>Ginger Baker joined here. He still knows how to play the drums, and his playing, as always, forms a perfect basis for improvisation. Gary Moore proves an excellent choice for an alternative to Eric Clapton. He feels perfectly how these songs have to be played. great guitar solos combined with bass playing as in the Cream days. The improvisations are extremely good, considering the fact that this is the first time Moore and Bruce play together (except for the fact that Jack has sung one song on the Moore album "Corridors of Power".</p><hr/><h5>16. Sitting On Top Of The World </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, bass</p><p>Gary Moore: guitar</p><p>Ginger Baker; drums</p><p>Another blues classic. I always liked this song on live Cream recordings, but I think this performance is even better.</p><hr/><h5>17. Politician </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, bass</p><p>Peter Brown: vocals</p><p>Gary Moore: guitar</p><p>Ginger Baker: drums</p><p>This song has been performed by Jack on several recordings, although this is the first time I hear Pete Brown, the writer of the lyrics, sing it. This performance of the song does not reach the quality / atmosphere as performed by West, Bruce & Laing on their live album.</p><hr/><h5>18. Spoonful </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, bass</p><p>Gary Moore: guitar</p><p>Ginger Baker; drums</p><p>Another classic. Magnificent performance. It's played more "staccato" than Cream used to play it, but somehow this song needs that.</p><hr/><h5>19. Sunshine of your love </h5><p> </p><p>Jack Bruce: vocals, bass</p><p>Gary "Mudbone" Cooper</p><p>Clem Clempson: guitar</p><p>Malcolm Bruce; acoustic guitar</p><p>Dick Heckstall-Smith: saxophone</p><p>Art Themen: saxophone</p><p>Henry Lowther: trumpet</p><p>John Mumford: trombone</p><p>Bernie Worrell: hammond organ</p><p>Gary Husband: piano</p><p>Jonas Bruce: synthesizer</p><p>François Garny: bass</p><p>Ginger Baker: drums</p><p>Simon Phillips: drums</p><p>Pete Brown: percussion</p><p>The "grand finale" with this all time Cream classic. Special attention for Clem Clempson on guitar and Bernie Worrell on the hammond organ.</p> |
| Bruce, Baker, Moore | Around The Next Dream | |
| Roy Buchanan | Guitar On Fire: The Atlantic Sessions | <p>The 16-tracks on this compilation are from Roy Buchanan's trio of mid-1970s titles: A Street Called Straight (1976), Loading Zone (1977), and You're Not Alone (1978). After a less than personally (or professionally) satisfying stint earlier in the decade with Polydor Records, Buchanan teamed up with Atlantic, who helped him get out of his pending contract with the former. Under the direction of Arif Mardin, the guitarist assembled the same instrumental support combo he'd used during his concurrent and practically incessant touring — John Harrison (bass), Malcolm Lukens (keyboards), and Byrd Foster (drums/vocals). The core quartet are augmented by all-stars Andy Newmark (drums), Will Lee (bass), Billy Cobham (percussion), the Brecker Brothers horn section, and even backing vocals from former Rascals member Eddie Brigati. The ferocious opening whine of "Running Out" is followed by Buchanan's nimble and liquefied tone, which enhances his otherwise bold and unabashed emotive leads. Specifically, the center solo exemplifies his remarkable ability to ably turn from a finely honed and sinister sound, to a divergent string stretching bluesy intonation. The reading of Jimi Hendrix' "If Six Was Nine" is nothing short of an inspired augmentation of the original. While Mardin's production on A Street Called Straight has been roundly criticized, there is a distinct progression from his previous studio releases, which were consistently hit-or-miss. Loading Zone is represented on this collection by no less than six of the LPs nine tunes. The effort was overseen by jazz bassist Stanley Clarke, and yields some thoroughly excellent material. Of top priority is the stretched-out Memphis groove on "Green Onions," sporting contributions from Booker T. & the MG's personnel Steve Cropper (guitar) and Donald "Duck" Dunn (bass). Of equal note is "Ramon's Blues," which commences this set, with riff upon riff of smouldering rounds of fretwork from Buchanan. You're Not Alone builds upon a spacey motif, right down to the astronaut headgear depicted in the cover artwork. Within the grooves are the languid and restrained "Fly...Night Bird," as well as a pair of diverse cover versions of rock classics "Turn to Stone" (Joe Walsh) and "Down by the River" (Neil Young). After a blistering take-off, the former disintegrates, thanks to the rather uninspired smooth jazz arrangement, which is highlighted by Buchanan's intense fret board flurries. Vocalist Gary St. Clair fronts the soulful "Down by the River," which is nowhere as essential as the live (and otherwise unavailable) rendering included on the two-disc Sweet Dreams: The Anthology (1992), or the decisive, if not definitive interpretation on Buck & the Snake Stretchers (1971). The ante is significantly raised, however, on the intense "Supernova," which aptly reasserts Buchanan's proficiency. Although there is a bit of overlapping material, Guitar on Fire: The Atlantic Sessions (1993) is a great companion to the aforementioned Sweet Dreams: The Anthology as a worthwhile critical assessment of Roy Buchanan's sadly unrated status, reiterating his moniker as "The World's Best Unknown Guitarist."</p> <p><b>— Lindsay Planer</b></p> |
| Jeff Buckley | Live At The Sin-e [Legacy Edition] | <p>Jeff Buckley resented being called a folk singer, but he made his name playing solo sets like this one on the New York coffee circuit. Sony released this live EP before his first fully produced rock album, Grace, perhaps to attract attention to the raw power of Buckley's greatest gift, his voice. These four songs certainly accomplished that end. Buckley hurdles seemingly unreachable octaves, suspends notes for what seems like minutes, and belts out his falsetto without a scintilla of restraint. That's a positive inasmuch as it allowed him to show off his considerable talent; it's a negative when it sounded like he was showing off. But his ten-minute cover of Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do" is a tour de force of strumming and scatting, and his acoustic "Eternal Life" has an electricity that is paradoxically lacking on the plugged-in album version. [A deluxe edition released after his death added dozens of additional live tracks.]</p><p>—<strong>Darryl Cater</strong></p> |
| Jeff Buckley | Live at Sin-e | |
| Jeff Buckley | Live from the Bataclan | <p>Live From the Bataclan presents four songs from a 1995 performance in Paris. It captures the magic of an entranced, adoring (and surprisingly large, considering how short a time <i>Grace</i> had been out) audience as they listen to the vocal acrobatizing and seductive voice of Jeff Buckley. Overall, the selections are very quiet and tender — just voice and guitar — but the loud tune (and only one with the band) comes first: a slightly stretched out incarnation of "Dream Brother," and a particularly throat-ripping, emotionally tortured rendition at that. Next comes a galloping 12-minute clap-along version of Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do." By the time Buckley switches over to French during his delivery of a medley of "Je N'En Connais Pas la Fin " and "Hymne a L'Amour," the crowd erupts at the end of every phrase, catching him off guard with their enthusiasm. It gets to be a bit much, and the crowd almost manages to cut the song short with their enthusiastic approval, but the evident enjoyment of all present will be shared by fans. The last selection is a nearly 10-minute version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." During it, the crowd momentarily becomes the backing choir, softly chanting "hallelujah" while Buckley takes it quieter until the song eventually dwindles out.</p>— <b>Joslyn Layne</b> |
| Jeff Buckley | Grace [Legacy Edition] | <p>Great artists dying before their time is not new to rock music. But there have been few whose brief career has been such a mystery as Jeff Buckley's -- certainly not in recent history. Maybe the recent release of Elliott Smith's posthumous From a Basement on the Hill will catapult him into the realm of the departed famous. But for now, it is the anti-hero Jeff Buckley who bears the full weight of having his career and its unrealized potential debated by the bored critic everywhere.</p><p>To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of his debut album Grace, Columbia Records released a three-disc set, including the original album, 12 outtakes, and a DVD that includes a documentary on the making of Grace and five videos.</p><p>The DVD is certainly interesting, and provides a nice look into the world that Andy Wallace and Jeff Buckley created at Bearsville Studios. Andy Wallace speaks about the recording process with more depth than most producers. It enables a closer look into Jeff Buckley's personality and provides some insight into the dynamic psyche that Buckley used to give birth to the now gigantic songs. Watching the Jeff Buckley interviews are interesting but at the same time disquieting. The entire documentary and all five videos seem permeated by the specter of Jeff Buckley.</p><p>It is not, however, the DVD that raises the most questions about Jeff Buckley's career, but rather the one new track on the disc of outtakes, the bluesy, soulful "Forget Her." The song was ultimately scrapped at the last minute for the ethereal "So Real". That "Forget Her" has eluded release for as long as it has is surprising. It fully embodies, the feel of Grace, and would have sat nicely on the album. Jeff Buckley's voice and guitar is powerful and heartfelt. Listening to it (over and over) begs the question, "Why did he decide not to release it as part of the album?" In the stunningly packaged liner notes, Mary Guibert, offers the lucid explanation: "It was for personal reasons that Jeff had removed it from the album." And herein lies the mystery that will always surround Jeff Buckley.</p><p>"Forget Her" casts more shadows on his career than has already surrounded it. While it sounds at home on Grace, it seems to fit just as well in the body of songs he had begun work for what may or may not have been Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. So, what was it going to be? Were we going to see a commercial follow up to Grace? Was it going to be the dark and gnarled guitar of "Nightmares By the Sea"? It is likely the only answer given (if one were given it all) would be, "Jeff didn't discuss it for personal reasons." Often this comment can be interpreted to mean the artist is cracking up or battling with drugs. With the mercurial Jeff Buckley it means only that he wasn't telling because he was likely going to change his mind.</p><p>The shroud over his career is also a result of such a limited body of work. Jeff Buckley was not a prolific songwriter like many of his idols. Or, if he was, he wasn't telling anyone. It is unfortunate, not because fans jealously hang on every note he sings, but because the Legacy Edition is limited in its ability to truly capture his fragile genius.</p><p>Also contained here are stirring renditions of "Lost Highway" by Bob Dylan and Nina Simone's "The Other Woman". More impressive is the soulful track "I Want Someone Badly", which Buckley performs with the band, Shudder to Think. The cut finds him in '60s R&B territory, and his voice doesn't disappoint.</p><p>Some of the tracks contained on the Legacy Edition are culled from previous compilations and EPs; so many buyers will already have them. However, the intimate lost track "Forget Her" and the documentary are worth the purchase alone. Jeff Buckley brought a depth to his music and the world he lived in that is uncommon, to say the least. Colombia has sought to capture it, and does a reasonably good job, even if they fail to shed any new light on the enigma of Jeff Buckley's legacy.</p><p>— <strong>David Brecheisen</strong></p><hr /><p>Jeff Buckley's tragically early death surely did something to immortalize his one and only full-length album, but even so, Grace is without doubt a truly musical monument, spanning time and space and perpetually blowing fresh minds round the globe (and quite possibly somewhere beyond).</p><p>His voice is multi-textured and he uses notes to dramatic effect - the agony and the ecstasy of it hitting you straight in the gut. His music is so extraordinary, in fact, that it's impossible to put this album on in the background without being drawn into its psyche. Don't just listen - experience, be mesmerized, take a trip.</p><p>This re-mastered Legacy edition of Grace includes a second CD of unreleased material and rarities, plus a DVD of promo videos and an expanded version of the original Grace documentary. The question is, is it worth having over the original?</p><p>The answer is a definite yes, its main selling point being the fact that the second CD, dare I say it, is practically as good as the first.</p><p>It highlights his interest and accomplishment in diverse genres and consolidates his status as a musical pioneer.</p><p>Out of the 13 songs, highlights include "Forget Her", a stunningly beautiful song that sends the emotions tearing and tingling out the ends of your fingers. "Kanga Roo" is 14 minutes of abrasive, mind melting insanity, "Parchman Farm Blues" which hears Buckley capturing perfectly the meter and pitch of an old blues sound and the thrash rock-ness of "Eternal Life".</p><p>So, 10 years after the original release of this seminal album, the legacy edition is indeed a credit to his name. There is poignancy to watching the man on film and you can't help wondering, as with all artists cut off in their prime, what may have been.</p><p>Listen and be purged.</p><p>— <strong>Stephanie Barrow</strong></p><hr/><p>Jeff Buckley was a diva. And a particularly fanciful one at that. I remember reading about the late soprano Maria Callas and Buckley fave Edith Piaf, the fragility of their demeanors, and the notion they were more precious, tender than the world around them; that every moment within earshot of their voices was like hearing the song of the most rare and beautiful bird in the world. In fact, Piaf as the "Little Sparrow" was the most obvious blueprint for Buckley's flighty, unabashedly emotional expression; in both cases, whether your reaction was to adore or abhor the often raw (but never adolescent) bouts of melo- and other kinds of drama, no one could say they held their hearts in check. Consequently, they needed lots of maintenance. In Buckley's case, it was a steady stream of collaborators, girls, gigs and an impressive reserve of torch songs from way back when. He really wasn't built for the strand of rock music borne of rebellion or release; he was a songbird, like the kind that used to receive roses and blown kisses from the debutantes in the balcony after performances.</p><p>Unlike Callas and Piaf, Buckley grew up in an age when the chanteuse didn't need an orchestra or a symphony hall to get their message across. After having cut his musical teeth in Los Angeles, he came to New York in 1991 and soon hooked up with guitarist Gary Lucas, eventually joining his band Gods & Monsters. Lucas and Buckley established a partnership that produced some very good songs (including "Mojo Pin" and Grace's title track) in a very short time, but before they had a chance to make it out of the city, Buckley quit the band over a disagreement regarding his future loyalty. Afterwards, he played solo gigs, sometimes incorporating friend and bassist Mick Grondhal, and assisted by a growing legion of nighthawk fans, was soon signed by Columbia as a solo artist.</p><p>1993's Live at Sin-e EP gives the best idea of what Columbia's A&R; rep must have seen in Buckley at the time. At shows, he was the picture of a high diva: sprawling, boundless and with more than a pinch of self-conscious glitter. However, as he revealed in The Making of Grace, the behind-the-scenes feature that leads off the third disc DVD in Columbia's new "Legacy" edition reissue of his debut full-length, he needed a band. He already had Grondhal, met drummer Matt Johnson through Grace executive producer Steve Berkowitz, and, midway through recording the album, brought in guitarist Michael Tighe (who eventually contributed "So Real", to which Buckley added a chorus and put on the record in place of the bluesy "Forget Her"). Producer Andy Wallace speaks on the documentary about his concerns over how much of the record should reflect Buckley's solo performances, but true to form, the singer wanted it all.</p><p>Somehow, despite an overflow of ideas—they needed three different band setups available at all times to accommodate Buckley's various moods—the record got done. And it was released. And thousands of open-heart romantics heard their ship come in. As it happened, Grace was received with mixed feelings from critics who probably thought they were getting the next great alt-rock savior, and instead felt they'd received dinner theater for the moody crowd. They had a point: For all its swells of emotion and midnight dynamics, Grace was not a record to rally the post-grunge alternation. It made a jazz noise where a rock one was expected and a classical one where a pop one might have sold more records. MTV snagged "Last Goodbye", Grace's most radio-friendly song by a considerable margin, but Buckley was predestined for a cult stardom.</p><p>Grace's strengths have been well-documented over the years: The flawless choice of cover songs, including the definitive reading of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (that we learn on the documentary was actually chosen based on John Cale's 1991 version from the Cohen tribute I'm Your Fan); the mystic, blue textures of "Mojo Pin", "So Real" and "Dream Brother" that seemed as related to Led Zeppelin as to Scott Walker as to Buckley's father; Wallace's sympathetic, intimate production and the band's equally sensitive following of Buckley's lead. And of course, he sang the hell out of those songs. His voice turned upward songs that naturally leaned inward; his reading of Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine" transformed from misty cocktail lament into transcendental experience, and the unlikely recasting of English composer Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol" into ambient lullaby.</p><p>And, as this reissue proves, for every bit of lightning trapped in a jar, Buckley was willing to try his hand at many songs with which he held a weaker grasp. Firstly, he fancied himself a rock star, and the second disc of this set includes endearing, but ultimately inessential readings of the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams", a pretty silly Screamin' Jay Hawkins impersonation on Leiber & Stoller's "Alligator Wine", and a speed-metal take on "Eternal Life". His version of Big Star's "Kanga-Roo" nails its weary grandeur, but goes overboard on the ensuing 11-minute jam session, effectively transforming it from intimidating wall of drone into a meandering, albeit unfinished and tentative giant. He sounds best interpreting songs like Bukka White's "Parchman Farm Blues", Simone's "The Other Woman", and Bob Dylan's "Mama, You Been On My Mind", though his own take on the blues—the previously unreleased "Forget Her"—sounds comparatively pedestrian.</p><p>So, the question becomes how frustrated you are willing to be with Buckley. His posthumous releases suggest what Grace did: that he was one of the most talented musicians of his generation, while also being one of the most impulsive and, often, maddeningly inconsistent. Is he really being served by the uncovering of outtakes, B-sides and live performances? Fans certainly think so, but I won't cop to listening very beyond his lone completed record these days. And it bears emphasizing that its rewards have lost nothing in 10 years. Grace remains one of the most engaging, inspired records ever made, and its 10 original songs serve as the best possible portrait of Buckley as a diva, songwriter and artist.</p><p>— <strong>Dominique Leone, Pitchfork</strong></p> |
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