Music Reviews: KC Trip, Part 2

Okay, so here's the stuff from my KC trip that I *did* like.  ;)  And, it wraps up an old list of music I'd been gradually working my way through for over a year.  I'm all done now, but it's been a real journey of discovery into lots of different current music.  It's been... interesting.  And good.  :)

Gillian Welch - "Soul Journey":  Very folk-y.  :)  Not alt-country, though... more like neo-traditional.  Imagine Emmylou Harris trying to sound Dylanesque (and not quite making it.)  Does that help?  

Honestly, I'd pick Dolly Parton's "Little Sparrow" over this CD - they're not dissimilar.  Still, I had some favorites:  Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor, Lowlands, Look At Miss Ohio, No One Knows My Name, One Little Song, Wayside/Back in Time.

Idina Menzel - "Still I Can't Be Still":  On this first album of hers from 1998, before she hit it big on Rent and Wicked, she sounds a bit like Joss Stone.  Powerful voice, capable of great dynamics (you could see how she could make it on Broadway), just sort of... raw, undeveloped and unsure (despite the bravado of several songs.)  Favorites: Minuet, Planet Z, Straw Into Gold, Reach, Fool Out Of Me, All of the Above (except no girls are really *like* that - they just like to think so.)  ;)

Maritime - "We, The Vehicles":  Their sophomore effort, I thought the lead singer was feeling his way more here than in the first album, "The Glass Floor" (reviewed earlier.)  The lyrics... you wonder if they really have meaning, or are they just for verbal effect?  

He sings about "boys with directionless hair and languorous girls with undertaker makeup", and a "parade of punk-rock t-shirts".  He certainly can paint a picture with words.  Wonder if he gets his ideas from all the new books on the English language.   Anyway, I liked best: Calm, German Engineering, People The Vehicles, Protein and Poison, Tearing Up The Oxygen, Young Alumni.

Hot Hot Heat - "Elevator":  This is catchy pop on the order of Maroon 5, only.. dark in tone and lyric, and not as slick.  Peppy, but not bright in mood.  Pretty good, though.  I liked the title track, plus: Middle of Nowhere, Pickin' It Up, Jingle Jangle, Dirty Mouth, Running Out Of Time, Shame On You.

Kings Of Convenience - "Riot On An Empty Street":  Wow.   Wow.  :)  I heard "Homesick", and thought...  hey!  it's Simon & Garfunkel reincarnated.  (except, um... they're not dead yet.)  But it's that same acoustic guitar, those same Everly-Brothers-sing-folk-music harmonies, the same introspective, brooding, impressionistic lyrics.  

Plus, they get Feist to sing backup on "Know How" and "The Build Up".  How cool is that? Their big single off this CD is "I'd Rather Dance With You", but every track is great.  A winner! Two thumbs up - best of the trip, right here.  I need all the rest of their CDs now.  Public library... to the rescue!  :)