iPod Observer

Trouble

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 11:29:30 -0400

At first, Ray LaMontagne might strike you as just another breathy-voiced knockoff of folk/rock guitarists like John Mayer and Jack Johnson. But he's actually got a better voice than either, he tells better stories, and he's got an incredible sense of atmosphere. We'll see, in the coming years, if he's for real, but "Trouble" is an impressive first album. A singer-songwriter friend of mine originally pointed me to this disc (his words: "This album saved my life"), but it's kept me coming back.

I particularly recommend the beautiful "Hold You in My Arms" and the slow shuffling "How Come."

The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered)

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 09:18:00 -0400

Okay, someone had to say it, and though others on the iPO staff are more qualified to review this album, I decided the time was now. This is the quintessential concept album. Though others came before (e.g. Sgt. Pepper's from the Beatles or Floyd's Dark Side), none were so totally awesome as this one. Don't bother buying individual tracks. Buy the album, and listen to it end to end. It pairs with almost any atmosphere or substance of your choice, as long as the place isn't loud and no one wants to pay attention to anyone else. Fair disclosure: Pink Floyd may be one of the great bands, but they weren't very cheerful. Enjoy.

Aretha Sings the Blues

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 09:07:26 -0400

While she didn't always have the best taste in song selection, Aretha Franklin is a must-study for anyone with interest in the human voice. She has the kind of powerful, recklessly passionate delivery that makes me so fond of Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant or U2's Bono, but she had so much vocal control that even in her most sky-searching melodies she always kept her voice clean and melodic.

If you want to buy an album, I'd steer you toward one of her several "Greatest Hits" collections to avoid bum tracks. If you're looking to learn a little more about why she's on the short list of greatest singers of all time, check out the Blues tunes "Trouble in Mind" and "Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning." Also, look to "Today I Sing the Blues" for one of her finest ballad performances.

An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Torm�

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 10:36:20 -0400

Of the three men who taught me how to sing, the last was Mel Torme. Apparently, Mel Torme is a joke to anyone more than a decade older than me, a living parody of a Vegas crooner. But I stumbled on this album, the first of four that he recorded with the brilliant pianist George Shearing, without any cultural baggage, and all I heard was the music.Torme is an instrumentalist's singer. A capable pianist and drummer in his own right, Torme could wring a ballad dry (as in "Might as Well Be Spring"), then spin around and scat as reckless a solo as any I've heard (I exhibit the Baroque-sounding groove he and Shearing strike up in "Lullaby of Birdland"). The album also sparkles with Shearing's swing-like-hell style at the keyboard, which helps produce some the happiest tracks ever recorded, including "Give Me the Simple Life" and "Manhattan Hoedown."

Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:20:48 -0400

Joe Williams was Figure Two in my three-man education in singing. A brilliant vocalist, scatter, and interpreter of jazz and blues, Williams produces music that's totally unique, yet sounds so effortless that it's easy to mistake for schmaltz. While I dig his early recordings (largely made with the Basie Band), his later cuts have a looseness and flexibility that grabs my ear. In the later years, Williams took to touring with a world-class quartet (piano, guitar, drum and bass) that matches any group I've heard in tightness and groove. Look into "Every Night," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Jimmy's Blues," or "I Want a Little Girl" for Williams at his best. Listen to how he casually drags phrases ahead of their usual place, rewrites melodies, or adjusts rhythms. It's like Sinatra, only slicker, hipper, harder, better.

Physical Graffiti

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:57:58 -0400

This album bears every flavor of genius from the five records that came before. It is, I believe, the band's finest. With Physical Graffiti, Zep came raging back to their musical home territory -- hard rock and supercharged blues -- carrying lessons from their digressions in Led Zeppelin III and Houses of the Holy. The album showcases singer Robert Plant's at his most melodic since singing "Stairway to Heaven" (he's on my short list for best voice in Rock and Roll history), and drummer John Bonham at his most subtle and refined -- even while he's at his hardest-hitting. Guitar hero Jimmy Page delivers all the variously clever, noodling, bluesy, rocking guitar riffs he can cram, and oft-forgotten bassist/keyboardist/mandolinier John Paul Jones provides a kind of musical spackle, especially in the mellower second disc of this double album. But even while Physical Graffiti serves as a summary of the explorations of Rock's quintessential band, it also sets a new standard for the Rock Epic in my two favorite tracks, "Kashmir," and "In My Time of Dying." The dark, driving intensity of those performances has yet to be matched. "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Freebird," and "November Rain," though fine songs in their way, can't touch Led Zep at its most passionate.