Monday, May 3, 2004

Volcano

Rating:★★★★★
Category:Music
Genre: Alternative Rock
Artist:Edie Brickell
Love it. My new favorite album. I have been a fan of hers since the New Bohemians and the famous "What I Am" but this new album topped my expectations. I didn't know how to categorize it for this review. Could be Alternative Rock, could be folk, could be Pop. Kinda Norah Jones-ish at times...

Produced by Charlie Sexton, it is haunting at times, whimsical at times, but always has that Edie flare.

When I listen to it, I want to be sitting on a beach with a drink and a nice breeze. It's exotic at times because of her style of singing but also the melodies are extremely catchy and the lyrics are poetic.

Go to amazon and download the free song (Rush Around). Do it. Now!

amazon details
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2 comments:

  1. from allmusic.com:

    Ever since Edie Brickell got up on-stage one night with a Texas band called New Bohemians in the mid-'80s, her musical career has been a series of happy accidents. So, it should be no surprise that her solo work has been only occasional. Her split from New Bohemians after 1990's Ghost of a Dog was followed by her 1992 marriage to Paul Simon, with whom she started a family. She returned in 1994 with her solo debut, Picture Perfect Morning, and 2002's Ultimate Collection compilation included many unreleased tracks, indicating that there had been some abortive attempts to make music since. Volcano, however, is her first full-length effort in nine years, and with an output like that, she must be considered only a part-time recording artist. But her work has been quite consistent all along. It is both charming and elusive, engaging and yet weightless. Here, using a basic band usually consisting of producer Charlie Sexton on guitar and other instruments, Carter Albrecht on keyboards, Pino Palladino on bass, and Steve Gadd on drums, she creates lilting folk-rock tracks, over which she sings in her breathy voice fragmentary lyrics touching on love and memory. Romantic devotion mixes with images of a rural past in a good-natured tone, but as the pronouns mix "I," "you," "he," and "she," the meanings rarely come clear to the listener. There are exceptions: "Take a Walk" finds the singer encouraging someone to relax; "What Would You Do," the concluding track, is a story-song about a runaway with a beginning, middle, and end. But most often, Brickell hangs her songs on repeated phrases, relying on her appealing voice and the sprung rhythms set up by the acoustic instruments to carry her through. This is not music made by a musician bent on being understood by a mass of listeners, but rather one setting her internal musings to music and getting a major label hoping for commercial lightning to strike again to put it out. Her patient fan base will be pleased, but others probably won't even know she has returned. � William Ruhlmann

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  2. I haven't heard Edie brickell since "What I am" which I loved, thanks I will definetly try to check this one out.

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