Love Life. Tawny Ellis

Love Life is an album that takes the listener through life at a later stage. The romantic time of moonlight and roses is long gone. It's time to face the music of what really lies beneath the surface, "into the deep end of love". The result is an album that presents that depth in the form of a set of beautifully crafted, played and sung songs.

Tawny Ellis lives in Los Angeles and releases her seventh recording, two E.P.s and five L.P.s. For Love Life she worked with Jesse Eisenberg (Promise of the Real) and Ted Russell Kamp as co-writers and producers.

Looking at the cover I'm reminded of the assistant secretary of Defence of my country. It did not invite me to start listening. I'm glad I did anyway as Tawny Ellis brings together many of the good things of 70s West Coast (country) rock in her music. With a voice that has a nice edge to it without coming close to Stevie Nicks. She dominates her songs in the way a solo artist should. There's no doubt who's album this is. With a voice like hers that was the correct choice to make. In fact it was a tip from Don Was that certainly paid out here.

Do not expect a fiery album. Love Life is a singer-songwriter album filled with a solid and sound background. The songs may have been written on an omnichord, that instrument is, at best, just an instrument on Love Life. This is a band effort in many ways. From a mild rocker to atmospheric violin accompaniment, it all comes by but with only one reason: to make Tawny Ellis shine.

The hardest song to write Ellis said, is 'Daddy'. It turned out as a song with mostly a piano and her voice. Intense and commanding. Her choice for a cover and closing of Love Life is 'Dirty Work', one of the many great songs on Steely Dan's album 'Can't Buy A Thrill'. The song is just as serious as nearly all songs on Love Life are and still it adds a touch of lightness.

Before that end there are nine songs that attest to Tawny Ellis' talents and her talent to work with the right people. My best guess is that all involved stepped up to the challenge and made the sum a bit larger than the parts. At the right moments an extra instrument is added to change the mood a little, an eerie peddle steel guitar, something more electronic like e.g. in 'Moonshine'. It alters the course of the album just a little and more subtle than what would happen on a more country oriented album. Love Life is so much more interesting. Listen to 'Pretend Love' and be convinced.

It took me two listening session to be convinced that Love Life is an album of extreme worth and warmth. From there there was no looking back. Tawny Ellis has a brand new fan.

Wo.

You can buy Love Life here:

https://tawnyellis.com/


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Saint Cloud. Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee kiest op Saint Cloud voor een wat meer roots georiënteerd en een wat meer ingetogen geluid en dat pakt werkelijk fantastisch uit.

Ik heb al jaren een zwak voor de muziek van Waxahatchee en dacht inmiddels wel te weten wat ik kan verwachten. Tot nu dan, want na de wat atypische openingstrack van Saint Cloud, kiest het alter ego van Katie Crutchfield voor een geluid waarin invloeden uit de folk en de country een veel belangrijkere rol spelen dan op haar vorige albums. Het album klinkt prachtig loom en broeierig en dat past uitstekend bij de zang van Katie Crutchfield, die zichzelf in vocaal opzicht overtreft. Waxahatchee heeft een aangenaam klinkend album gemaakt, maar het is ook een album vol diepgang en urgentie, die langzaam maar zeer zeker aan de oppervlakte komen. Jaarlijstjesmateriaal, dat is duidelijk. 

We worden de afgelopen jaren werkelijk overspoeld met jonge vrouwelijke singer-songwriters en ondanks mijn enorme zwak voor het genre vind ik zeker niet alles goed. Wanneer een nieuw album van Waxahatchee verschijnt heb ik echter geen enkele twijfel, want het alter ego van de uit Birmingham, Alabama afkomstige Katie Crutchfield, kan al sinds haar debuut American Weekend uit 2012 met de allerbesten mee.

Waxahatchee, vernoemd naar een meer in Alabama nabij de plek waar Katie Crutchfield opgroeide, debuteerde in 2012 met een uiterst ingetogen, maar ook ruw lo-fi folkalbum. Sindsdien koos de Amerikaanse singer-songwriter voor een steeds net wat steviger geluid met invloeden uit de indierock, al bleef er ook altijd plaats voor meer ingetogen songs. Het leverde met Cerulean Salt uit 2013, Ivy Tripp uit 2015 en Out In The Storm uit 2017 drie consistent klinkende en bovendien drie ijzersterke albums af, die stuk voor stuk jaarlijstjeswaardig waren.

Op het deze week verschenen Saint Cloud kiest Waxahatchee voor een wat ander geluid. De stevige gitaren van haar vorige albums zijn verruild voor een warm geluid waarin invloeden uit de Americana nadrukkelijk doorklinken. Katie Crutchfield werkt op haar nieuwe album met een band die bestaat uit Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman), twee leden van de band Bonny Doon (in 2018 goed voor het helaas vrijwel onopgemerkte meesterwerk Longwave) en Nick Kinsey (Elvis Perkins In Dearland).

Saint Cloud is voorzien van een hecht klinkend bandgeluid en het is een bandgeluid dat lomer en meer ingetogen klinkt dan het geluid op de vorige albums van Waxahatchee. Het is een geluid vol invloeden uit de folk, countryrock en Americana, maar Saint Cloud is zeker geen doorsnee rootsalbum, al is het maar omdat Katie Crutchfield de indie-rock en de lo-fi niet volledig heeft afgezworen.

Wat direct opvalt bij beluistering van het album is dat het prachtig klinkt. Producer Brad Cook heeft Saint Cloud voorzien van een warm geluid zonder opsmuk. Het is een geluid waarin de gitaren fraai klinken en het is een geluid waarin de mooie en bijzondere stem van Katie Crutchfield uitstekend tot zijn recht komt.

Hoewel ik zeer gesteld ben op de vorige albums van Waxahatchee, vond ik Saint Cloud direct bij eerste beluistering prachtig en misschien zelfs wel mooier dan de albums die de afgelopen jaren zoveel indruk maakten. Ik sta hier zeker niet alleen in, want de critici komen vooralsnog superlatieven tekort bij de bespreking van Saint Cloud en de Britse kwaliteitskrant The Guardian noemt het album zelfs het beste album van 2020 tot dusver. Zover durf ik nog niet te gaan, maar dat Waxahatchee een uitstekend album heeft afgeleverd is ook voor mij zeker.

Saint Cloud staat vol fraai ingekleurde en vol emotie gezongen tracks, maar het zijn ook tracks die een enorme urgentie uitstralen. Waxahatchee heeft bovendien een veelzijdig album afgeleverd. In een aantal tracks hoor je iets van Bob Dylan, maar Saint Cloud roept net zo makkelijk associaties op met de muziek van Lucinda Williams, het eigenzinnige debuut van Liz Phair, de zuidelijke country en folk uit haar thuisstaat Alabama of het laatste album van Big Thief, maar gelukkig blijft Katie Crutchfield vooral zichzelf. De keuze voor een duidelijk ander geluid is altijd tricky, maar op Saint Cloud van Waxahatchee pakt het werkelijk fantastisch uit. Prachtalbum!

Erwin Zijleman

Je kunt Saint Cloud hier luisteren en kopen:

https://waxahatchee.bandcamp.com/album/saint-cloud-2



of luister naar onze Spotify Playlist om uit te vinden waar we over schrijven:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Jerry Lehane. Jerry Lehane

Are my speakers broken? The first sounds come out as if the speakers blew up just before putting the album on. Luckily the answer is no, as the glorious sounds of 'Kiss My Tattoo' fly into my room, shake up my ears and jostle around in my brain a bit. The opening song was discussed in a post on singles recently but is so good that I do not mind to sing its praises once again. This song is so good. It rocks, it's dirty, it's glorious. The opening notes so fast the guitar player can hardly keep up. Jerry Lehane has created a monster of a song .... 29 years ago.

For whatever the reason the five songs recorded in three late evenings are released only now in 2020. In the meantime Lehane, once a member of a band called Dogmatics, became a plumber in his hometown of Canton and played rock and roll with reunion shows of Dogmatics and with other bands. Something that just had to happen, something that needs to get out of his system.

The idea was to release them together with three new still to record songs. Enter Covid-19 and exit new songs. The upside is that we now have a mini album called 'Jerry Lehane'. That I got to know 'Kiss My Tattoo', one of the finest modern rock and roll songs I know.

The other four songs are laidback by comparison but show what a fine songwriter Lehane is. They show his more mellow side and pop influences from the 60s, the kind of songs he got to know in his early youth and obviously still is a huge fan of. I can relate to that easily.

Taking my words mellow and pop to literally may give cause to a fright listening to the opening guitar burst in 'Runaway With You'. Continue and you'll see what I mean. Of course this is a rock song, with layers of guitars playing together and off each other. It is the kind of track that reminds of a singer like Dion but then with a real rock sound added to the teenybopper songs of the early 60s.

"Do you feel like dying?", is an interesting question that Lehane puts to me next. I think I'll pass for a while. Ask some more years from now perhaps. In the meantime I have taken a lot to listening to songs like these. 'Feel Like Dying' is a great song. It combines U.S. rock with a British pop feel, scoring points with me immediately. Despite the title, 'Feel Like Dying' is a feel good song, something that seems hard to believe perhaps.

The only thing I can hold against the album is that perhaps the songs are not 100% finished. Some fade outs are a bit rough. That is really the only thing. In other words Jerry Lehane had gold in his hands but was unable to cash in. If someone like Dan Baird could score hits in the mid 90s, so Jerry Lehane should have been able to grab some attention for these songs. "I Love You, Period", don't make me laugh. It is no comparison, but okay, nice.

With 'All I Can Do' and 'Fish' the mini album has a great ending. In fact 'Fish' speeds up the tempo some more again. Like label mate Nat Freedberg can, Lehane puts the whip over the rhythm and the guitars lash out as well. Rock and roll comes to the rescue. What a record. What a beginning and what an ending.

Something that struck me with the single, strikes me again on the full album. This record sounds so fresh, as if it was made only yesterday. To my ears nothing has aged here. This music fits 2020 superbly and many bands releasing records this year can be jealous of Jerry Lehane's new/old mini album.

One thing is for certain, if Jerry Lehane is as good a plumber as he can write rock and roll songs his business must be a huge success. Now let's start to make sure the world starts to realise how good this mini album is. It's this GOOOOOOD! Spread the word, please.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy 'Jerry Lehane' here:

https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/jerry-lehane


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Los Dos. Nocona

Los Dos is an album that in essence needs as little words as the album title: familiar - good. That could do it but I will write a little more. Simply because the album sounds so familiar and is good.

To place the album the words Americana, Southern rock and roots rock would all work. What I'd like to add are touches of The Kinks on 'Mushwell Hillbillies', of course U.S. influenced, that shines through as well.

Nocona is a band I had never heard of, so let's take a look at the band itself first. Nocona is from Los Angeles and releases its third record with Los Dos. The band at heart is a trio, the couple Chris and Adrienne Isom and drummer Justin Smith. Additionally four other musicians play on the album. A fiddle, harmonica and pedal steel show that the band recreates music from bands in the 70s for which it was normal to have country related instruments in the band.

The next step is what does Nocona do with its influences. That actually is a lot. 'Tabernacle Woes', what a title btw, does not go down any obvious path but explores other musical avenues. Not necessarily new but certainly more challenging for the average music lover. Without being musically extremely related, let me say like 'Brown Sugar' relates to 'Moonlight Mile' and the end of 'Can You Hear Me Knocking' on 'Sticky Fingers'. 'Tabernacle Woes' comes as a total surprise as the album opens deliciously familiar in sound, but is only the starting point for all to come.

The Rolling Stones is not a totally random mention. Nocona does borrow a little form the band from around 1970 and infuses that with more traditional country (rock) elements from the U.S. The result is a very diverse and interesting set of songs constituting Los Dos. The outcome is that Los Dos holds fiery rockers, more traditional country songs and experiments. The band as a whole does not need to follow everything. 'Too Much To Lose' is bass, drums, guitar(s) and a wild piano played by Carl Byron. But wait, isn't there a little sliding on the peddle steel in the mix any way? Yes, there is.

Promo photo: Rob Shanahan

The result is that Nocona tickles a lot of my fancies. In each song there is more than enough to enjoy for a lover of the classic rock era where bands experimented with other genres. There's even some Pink Floyd/David Gilmore style guitar playing coming through loudly in the solo in 'Unseen Hand', that is a country rocking song when all is said and done. The slide part is great as well. Country prog-rock? Is that a existing moniker? Perhaps it should be invented if it wasn't. The album ends quite traditionally as if to soothe the not so experimentally inclined with 'Ace in The Hole'. This song qualifies as one of the best songs The Jayhawks never wrote; immediately and without reserve.

In other words Los Dos is an album that is far removed from your run of the mill new album. In the garage of the Isoms, where the album was conceived before finished in a real studio, a very special atmosphere must have been present. To be a neighbour could be gruelling of course but just imagine being able to hear the conception of this extremely interesting and good album. Life could be a lot worse.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy Los Dos here:

https://nocona.bandcamp.com/album/los-dos


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Jump Rope Gazers. The Beths

The three songs The Beths released announcing its new album sort of blew me off my chair. The expectations for Jump Rope Gazers were set so high that the album could only disappoint. Did it? Follow me.

The album opens with the song it should open with. The song is totally exciting and in the list of the best alternative rock songs I've heard over the past years. 'I'm Not Getting Excited' it is called none the less. Well, I am and only want to dance and dance while listening. It holds everything. A fast pace, a great melody, fantastic harmonies and a guitar solo that only barely makes it to the other side of the bend, a narrow escape from falling into the deep. An absolute top song.

Listening to Jump Rope Gazers more and more I realise I'm listening to the best album by a woman led band since Veruca Salt's 'Eight Arms To Hold You', my standard in this category of music. Musically there is some similarity, for sure, it is in the harmonies where the same level of proficiency is shared with the world. In the weird little "aah-aah-oooohs" in 'Dying To Believe' e.g. They are a dead giveaway as far as I'm concerned.

The Beths are getting dangerously close to absolute perfection on this album. Without letting go of its alternative rock roots, the pop element that is allowed in makes several songs deliciously bittersweet. A better version of The Bangles, because the pop element does not win.

The Beths are from New Zealand and releases its second full length album after releasing an EP in 2016, 'Warm Blood' and 'Future Me Hates Me' in 2018. The latter did not impress me at the time but probably deserves a re-appraisal as 'Warm Blood' really impressed me when re-released on vinyl in 2019. Elisabeth Stokes and band set a next convincing step with Jump Rope Gazers.

At the same time the band is not afraid to show what it has been listening to recently. 'Acrid' has written Courtney Barnett all over it, including the way of singing and vocal changes. What is added is the uncanny vocal prowess of the band and Elisabeth Stokes. She's vocally all over the song, making it a song Ms. Barnett could be quite jealous of.

The combination of hard alternative rocking and the sweeter, alternative rock ballads makes Jump Rope Gazers diverse and more interesting because of it. There's more to explore and enjoy. In one sense it makes the band seem more like many other women fronted alternative bands. In all others the band is better in many other aspects. The music, the compositions are in at least three quarters of this album simply better than the competition's. A good example is 'Do You Want Me Now'. It is at heart an average song. In most ways it simply progresses. In the harmonies the band has challenged itself, the guitar solo gives it a kick. The result is a ballad very much worthwhile listening to.

With Jump Rope Gazers The Beths has put itself in an exclusive list. The band can challenge Jen Cloher's and Courtney Barnett's last albums easily and leave the rest behind. The best alternative, female fronted rock acts come from Down Under. That much is clear. I can't wait to play the record in my home. Unfortunately it takes a while before that is possible. As if the cd has to be rowed across the Pacific and beyond.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy Jump Rope Gazers here:

https://thebethsnz.bandcamp.com/album/jump-rope-gazers-2


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g