Mar 31
HarrisMusic album review
It was fitting that while listening to Gavin DeGraw’s third album Free, my media player kept lagging, creating gaps of silence during the songs. Sometimes, it was hard to tell where the gaps where created by the equipment and where they were engineered by DeGraw himself (the soft spoken Mountains to Move starts off with a full half-minute of virtual silence). While DeGraw’s musical presence is firmly intact on the new album, the album is as boring as all get out.
Free starts off like a weak cup of coffee and doesn’t improve much through the run of tracks. Thematically and stylistically, this is the Gaving DeGraw we know and love. It just lacks any energy. Free misses the force of his impassioned vocals and pounding piano chords that made his debut album transcendent. His second album was a dud, except for In Love With a Girl and We Belong Together (which was actually a better mix on the album than the Tristan & Isolde soundtrack); it came off like so much piano-bar fodder.
There’s no arguing that DeGraw can write a power ballad. But give me a break, how many times can you write songs about a broken heart? Stay stays the course, but it’s so mellow, it’s hard to believe this is a guy pleading for the love of his love to stick around. Glass is like a power ballad-lite. Lover Be Strong picks up the pace a little (barely) but it’s not a song you’ll remember later. Dancing Shoes and Waterfall return to the soft spoken formula that finally declare the album good for background noise and not much more.
I really like DeGraw’s musical sensibility (even though he comes off a goofy frat boy) but I found his last album barely tolerable as a whole, and this one not at all.
Mar 17
HarrisMusic Album Reviews, country music
I have always had a soft spot for Willie Nelson, who knows his way around a tune. And dude can sing.
His voice is showcased front and center on his latest collection of tracks, Naked Willie, 17 stripped down songs that he originally performed in the 60’s. Most, like Following Me Around and The Local Memory, are just brief, two-minute drills through folk rock. But there are some surprises. The opening track Bring Me Sunshine will put a bright smile on your face. Happiness Lives Next Door, with a piano-heavy arrangement, has been transformed into a track worthy of Frank Sinatra.
Yet Nelson manages to avoid sounding like a nostalgia act despite the long years on all of these tunes. Somehow, stripped down doesn’t mean washed out, just simple. The arrangements work to great effect on tracks like When We Live Again showing the artist’s connection to these classic tunes, several of which were culled from his 1970 album Laying My Burdens Down. And just when the album almost grinds to a halt, Nelson infuses it with new life in a big way with two energetic tracks, the spiritual Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down and the closing track Laying My Burdens Down.
Mar 12
HarrisMusic Album Reviews
BHB, the debut album by the Ballas Hough Band, is actually thoroughly entertaining pop confection. I don’t have the faintest clue who Mark Ballas and Derek Hough are, though their bio puts them on Dancing with the Stars. So dancers are making a record, but in this case it works.
Don’t mistake BHB for anything other than another mindless boy band pop album, but for all that, it’s fun in way mainstream radio just isn’t these days. There are enough guitar grooves and playful harmonies to keep it interesting and the boys steal from every pop star of the last thirty years, but it’s done well. Devastated, the album’s best track, has the faint hints of Maroon 5 and New Kids on the Block (old school NKOTB that is) and the line “look what God created, she leaves me devastated.” Birthday has elements of King of Pop (old school Michael Jackson that is).
BHB is light on the ballads, and you’ll probably want to skip them anyway (Longing For is just okay). It’s a tight set, mostly energetic pop fodder that ends quickly but is fully satisfying. Though the last track, Underwater, is just another unmemorable dreary ballad. But you know, if you’re planning a breakthrough into pop music from dancing, you could do a lot worse than this for a debut.
Mar 10
HarrisMusic Album Reviews, American Idol
Neither Taylor Hicks nor Elliot Yamin, both American Idol disciples with marginal post-Idol career success, are exactly what you would call sex symbols. But maybe it was a smooth move for Hicks to invite Yamin to sing on the new album, The Distance, which goes on sale today.
The duet, loftily titled Woman’s Got to Have It, is a high-energy Prince-esque barnburner complete with a spoken word intro. “You got make her feel it every time boy” Hicks sings. This just sweeps me back in time to the legendary Celine Dion/Barbra Streisand duet Tell Him. Well, both gentlemen can sing, at least.
Before I hit play on The Distance, I would have guessed that Hicks was heading into gospel, Christian rock territory on the new set. I wasn’t completely wrong, though Hicks isn’t quite as blatantly playing to the Christian crowd like say, Jessica Simpson’s foray into God’s country. This is closer to soul music, but the kind where dirrty is hinted at more than expressed directly, and almost every song could be a jilted love story.
Certainly Hicks, American Idol’s inexplicable season 5 champion, has had little success as a straight-up jazz or rock musician. Now he’s found a balance between the jazz sound he favors, a rock flavor, and a sprinkle of gospel harmonies. Nothing here screams “mainstream” but it’s a respectable release for diehard fans. It’s just not going to catch fire like former Idol alum Kelly Clarkson’s new album, also released today. For as badly overproduced as Clarkson’s album was, at least the songs were catchy. You won’t find yourself singing anything from The Distance tomorrow.
From the opening, it would be understandable if you mistake The Distance for a Christian rock album. The first three tracks, the title track and the song New Found Freedom especially, are those kind of songs that could be about lovers, or someone in love with God, depending on your interpretation. After that, (and after sitting through the putrid track Nineteen) the rest of the album falls into a comfortable groove of jazzy rock that made Hicks, yes I said this already – inexplicably, a household name.
The best way to enjoy a Taylor Hicks album is, apparently, to ignore the lyrical confusion and just sit back and absorb the vibe. A song like Seven Mile Breakdown works way better if you don’t think about what he’s singing about, as does the languid, piano-heavy Maybe You Should. On the other hand, Wedding Day Blues, written with the same formula, is flat and weirdly disturbing to listen to even if you ignore the words.
Hicks’ album needs a better mix of tracks to find total success. There is no sustained energy from start to finish, no catchy tunes hidden at the end as a saving grace. Trust me, only Hicks’ true fans got to have this one.
Mar 10
HarrisMusic Album Reviews, American Idol
I didn’t like My Life Would Suck Without You when it hit the radio waves last month. It sounded like a songwriter wrote the tagline first and then fashioned the rest of the song around it. I’m sure a lot of songs start this way, but somehow most artists find a melody in there somewhere.
But all of Kelly Clarkson’s new album All I Ever Wanted could be described that way. Overproduced is an understatement on this album. Song after song has been given Meat Loaf-sized production, which swallows up Clarkson’s angelic vocals and any hint of a melody. There’s nothing soft about the track Cry with its forlorn lyrics “If anyone asks, I’ll tell them we just grew apart…Is this what it feels like to really cry?” It sounds like Clarkson is shouting the chorus at you instead of singing it.
The formula does work occasionally. The title track, All I Ever Wanted, is toned down without losing its pop sensibility. In fact, the middle part of the album is where Clarkson finds her stride. Already Gone is my favorite track on the new album. Anchored by an uncomplicated drum beat, and a discernible melody, the tracks hangs on to a simple message “I want you to move on, so I’m already gone.” Ironically, I could see this track for its fantastic club potential.
But the rest are already juiced to the max. It’s hard to imagine what a remix could do to make them any worse. Another track just off the beaten path, almost, is Long Shot and it works because the song finds Clarkson’s voice somewhere in the mix. The other notable exception is I Want You, buried at the album’s end, which is a stark sonic departure from the rest. It sounds like Clarkson’s take on a Go-Go’s track and it’s a breath of fresh air on an otherwise congested album.
All I Ever Wanted is crowded and unnecessarily complicated even for a pop album. Clarkson’s considerable vocal talents are hidden away in the name of mainstream tastes, which is too bad because it was her vocals that sold her to America in the first place. And I still don’t like My Life Would Suck Without You even one bit.
Mar 03
HarrisMusic Album Reviews
Gregory Douglass is an unknown to me. According to his bio, Battler is his seventh studio release. He’s got a Wikipedia entry, which, you know, is always a sign of popularity.
Battler is an exceptional album. It’s a slow-burner, melodic and hypnotic without being boring. It’s a nice mix of folk melodies with just enough pop sensibility to show off some thoughtful production. The lead track, Broken Through, is a slumbering piano ballad that lulls you in a deceptive calm before the album launches into the urgent, atmospheric track Cathedrals that cries out “why can’t I free the chains that are inside of me?”
The rest of the album stays the course, like the track Stay with a simple arrangement, and evocative plea “won’t you stay with me tonight? I don’t want to be alone.” Douglass has a nice range and uses background harmonies as effectively as other instruments on the set. The best of the album is stacked towards the end, the throbbing hymn Harlequin and the final track, the gorgeous Ordinary Man, which features guest vocals from Grace Potter.
Douglass has tour dates on tap through mid-May to promote the new set.
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