home entertainment 2007

Ely’s musical depth is more than apparent on “Little
Blossom,” which begins as a loping accordion waltz that I
could hear Dolly Parton covering—before it changes course
midstream and becomes a galloping Buddy Holly number. A
full horn section complements “River Fever,” a rocking ode
to Austin nightlife, and “Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes.”
A favorite Ely theme is outlaws, and here the ne’er-do-wells
include “Jesse Justice,” a pool-hall hustler; the aptly titled “Hard
Luck Saint”; and “Miss Bonnie and Mister Clyde,” an alternate
lyric set to the music of his earlier “Me and Billie the Kid.”
At only 11 songs and 49 minutes, Happy Songs seems a bit
stingy, especially as it’s subtitled Pearls from the Vault Vol. XX.
That said, it’s a fine introduction to the many charms of Joe
Ely—and the perfect soundtrack to reading Bonfire of Roadmaps.
GRINDERMAN
Grinderman
RECORD REVIEWS
—Leland Rucker
Anti- ATI-86861-2 (CD). 2007. Grinderman, prods.; Nick Launay, prod., eng.; Matt
Lawrence, Dom Morley, James Aparicio, engs.; Tim Young, mastering. AAD.? TT:
36:51
Performance ★★★★ 1 ⁄2
Sonics ★★★★
Viewed from the peanut gallery, Grinderman seems more
a midlife crisis than a new band. Led by 49-year-old Nick
Cave and featuring members of his longtime outfit, the
Bad Seeds, Grinderman is a foray into the primal rock-
’n’roll swampland. Cave has been here before, but not since he
was a vampiric young man leading Australia’s goth-noisy
Birthday Party, or the early, more murderous version of the Bad
Seeds in the 1980s. In recent years, Cave has positioned himself
above all the grime: He’s become a Bible scholar (seriously), published
a novel and two volumes of poetry and essays, written the
script for Outback-Western film The Proposition, and released
well-mannered albums with such titles as The Lyre of Orpheus.
So it’s not surprising that Grinderman is precisely what Cave
needs to get back into black. The real shock is how sharp and
caustically funny the band’s first album is. The two opening
tracks, “Get It On” and “No Pussy Blues,” feature some of
Cave’s raunchiest preacher-man ranting—the latter title says it
all—and the stark separation of the vocals from blasts of deathmetal
riffing and static guitar noise allows for maximum
dynamic impact. The Stooges-style rockers “Love Bomb” and
“Honey Bee (Let’s Fly to Mars)” are more loosely played and
muddily recorded, and this is the album’s main flaw: the lack of
a consistent approach behind the boards. Otherwise, the different
songwriting styles on Grinderman hang together with thematic
ease, from the electric-bouzouki-powered “Electric Alice”
to the blues shuffle “Go Tell the Women.” Even the syrupy
“Man in the Moon”—a kind of “Rocket Man”–style ballad about
an absent father—seems to fit; what bad-ass, renegade rocker
doesn’t have daddy issues?
But perhaps the best thing about Grinderman is that Cave’s
evil side gets some sonic fangs. Listening to The Best of Nick
Cave and the Bad Seeds—the definitive CD survey, spanning
1985–1997—is a trip through some painfully thin-sounding
drums and too-trebly guitars. So welcome back, Nick. Dr.
Jekyll seemed a respectable, well-educated fellow, but we’d
much rather have a night of sex, drugs, and violence with Mr.
Hyde. —Matthew Fritch
NORAH JONES
Not Too Late
Blue Note 3 74516 2 (CD). 2007. Lee Alexander, prod.; Tom Schick, eng. AAD. TT:
45:29
Performance ★★ 1 ⁄2
Sonics ★★★
With this title, it seemed that perhaps the moment for
Norah Jones to break out and put her surprisingly
muscular talents on display was finally at hand.
No such luck. The strollers-and-coffeehouse
crowd need fear not—Jones remains nice to a fault. Not Too
Late is more of the same, only this time the creative pulse is
even pinker and more cotton-candy-like. Now that the late
Arif Mardin is no longer at the helm, Jones and boyfriendproducer
Lee Alexander decided to make an album of Jones
originals instead of pop covers, to establish her cred as some
kind of alt-jazz singer-songwriter. To go with their homemade
project, the sound has a fairly spare, demo kind of vibe.
Earning your spurs as a songwriter is no easy task, and for
the most part Jones is too timid in this first attempt. Hooks
like those in her 2002 hit, Jesse Harris’ “Don’t Know Why,”
are hard to come by, though the groove in the obvious single
here, Jones’ “Thinking About You,” goes for a reasonable facsimile.
While there are still relationship songs among these 13
tracks—“Be My Somebody,” “Little Room”—what’s most
interesting is that Jones has also penned message songs. The
problem there is that she’s too sweet to say what she really
thinks. In “My Dear Country,” she sings, “nothing is as scary
as election day,” but when it comes to “the one we hate” (ie,
Bush), she waffles, hoping “maybe he’s not deranged.”
Besides her being afraid to swing the axe (and piss off the
Young Republican portion of her fan base), the problem is
that the feathery, laid-back vocal style Jones favors on her
own records (but, interestingly, not on other projects, such as
the NYC glam-rock band El Madmo) is colossally ill-suited
to this kind of assertion. Her sultry, soothing, often very
expressive coo does not lend the words enough gravitas.
Musically, the tunes are mostly genial, undistinguished ballads,
the only departure being “Sinkin’ Soon.” With M. Ward
on harmony vocals, Jones ventures into Madeleine Peyroux
retro territory in an arrangement that features pots-and-pans
percussion and a trombone given an almost human voice by
a plunger mute.
No law says that being loud, rockin’, or wildly experimental
makes for better records. And while snoozy is nothing to
aspire to, being pleasant is no sin either. Listening to Not Too
Late, it’s hard not to wonder—particularly if you’ve seen Jones
live—what would happen if she dumped the dreaminess,
pulled out of the slow lane, and pushed her talents into a
faster, more ambitious universe. —Robert Baird
NRBQ
Ludlow Garage 1970
Sundazed SC 11082 (CD). 2006. Rick Lemker, Dan Britt, engs.; Bob Irwin, mastering,
AAD? TT: 62:15
Performance ★★★ 1 ⁄2
Sonics ★★★
NRBQ & THE WHOLE WHEAT HORNS:
Derbytown: Live 1982
MVD Visual DR 4524 (DVD). 2006. TT: 42:44 (plus extras)
www.Stereophile.com, May 2007 123