2.16.2007

And Speaking of Music


I downloaded Rickie Lee Jones's new cd from iTunes this morning, looking forward to playing it during my jog. Everyone on the site was giving it five stars, but I shouldn't have listened to Funoka and Captain Jolly.

It's important to note I've always appreciated Rickie Lee's unique voice and her songwriting, the point being I'm a fan. Of course, who would buy this album anyway except a long-time follower?

I wish I could get my ten bucks back. Listening to the cd, I kept picturing her rolling around on the kitchen floor, making up songs while the hash brownies baked and the meth cooked. I'm not saying she'd ever really do that; it just SOUNDED like it. Only a few songs had actual melodies (something I prefer in music), and even on those, her voice sounded like a kazoo.

Don't listen to me, though. I mean, I love the BeeGees. Besides, looking for validation when I got back home, I discovered quite the opposite--articles in which the Sermon is characterized as "mature, inspired, and confident" and where songs are likened to those of Patti Smith and the Velvet Underground. But I don't get it. I felt like I did when I went to see Maximun Overdrive so many years ago: robbed.

Thank god when I got to school today, Mary had left a copy of the new Lucinda Williams on my desk. No disappointment there.

3 comments:

Howard said...

That blows. I was gonna say I heard the new Lucinda is great. Thankfullly you can make up for it with that.

Poor Rickie.

Rupert said...

um, off-topic comment here, but . . . in this week's New Yorker in an article by Dana Goodyear about the Ruth Lilly zillion buck endowment to Poetry (prozac money) it mentions Ted Kooser's weekly column " . . . which features comforting American themes (neighbors, chores, raking) . . . "
Ha! You go, T.

Collin Kelley said...

Woah! We have dueling RLJ reviews on our blogs. Cool.

I don't know if anything reminded me of Patti Smith (maybe "Tried to Be a Man" comes close), but I could hear some Pink Floyd-ish noodling in "Road to Eammus" and I think "Falling Up" is alt-country on par with anything Patty Griffin or Emmylou Harris have done lately.

It's a grower, T, listen to it again. And for another point of view, gentle Tania readers, visit my blog.

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