Ray LaMontagne [2004] Trouble

[01] Trouble
[02] Shelter
[03] Hold You In My Arms
[04] Narrow Escape
[05] Burn
[06] Forever My Friend
[07] Hannah
[08] How Come
[09] Jolene
[10] All The Wild Horses
[11] Forever My Friend [Bonus Live Track]



amg: The best songs on Trouble, the debut release from songwriter Ray LaMontagne, draw on deep wells of emotion, and with LaMontagne's sandpapery voice, which recalls a gruffer, more sedate version of Tim Buckley or an American version of Van Morrison, they seem to belie his years. The title tune, "Trouble," is an instant classic, sparse and maudlin (in the best sense), and songs like "Narrow Escape," a ragged, episodic waltz, are equally impressive, with careful, cinematic lyrics that tell believable stories of wounded-hearted refugees on the hard road of life and love. Most of the tracks fall into a midtempo shuffle rhythm, so the words have to carry a lot in order to avert a sort of dull sameness, and when it works, it works big, and when it doesn't, well, LaMontagne is so serious and sincere about his craft that you tend to forgive him instantly. Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek guests on "Hannah" and the sad, somber lullaby "All the Wild Horses," playing fiddle and adding vocals, and producer Ethan Johns adds drums and other touches on most tracks. The sound is measured and sparse, with few frills (a five-piece string section is used on a few tracks, but is never intrusive), all of which supports the emotional urgency of LaMontagne's writing. "How Come" sounds a bit like a rewrite of Dave Mason's "Feelin' Alright," and a couple of other cuts seem a bit labored, but overall this is an impressive debut by an extremely special songwriter.
(amg 7/10)

Robert Wyatt [2003] Cuckooland

[01] Just A Bit
[02] Old Europe
[03] Tom Hay's Fox
[04] Forest
[05] Beware
[06] Cuckoo Madame
[07] Raining In My Heart
[08] Lullaby For Hamza
[09] Trickle Down
[10] Insensatez
[11] Mister E
[12] Lullaloop
[13] Life Is Sheep
[14] Foreign Accents
[15] Brian The Fox
[16] La Ahada Yalam



amg: Robert Wyatt's first full-length of new material since 1997's Shleep is no less mischievous, witty, and poignant. As has become his custom, Wyatt offers a set of 16 new songs seemingly composed for a wide array of musicians including Annie Whitehead, Eno, David Gilmour, Tomo Hayakawa, Karen Mantler, Phil Manzanera, Paul Weller, and others he enlisted to record it. The album is divided into two halves. The first eight selections being 'neither here...' while the last eight are 'nor there...'. What divides the halves are in Wyatt's mind and aesthetics alone, as the disc feels like a seamless, unified whole. From the opener, "Just A Bit," a dastardly yet delightful bit of cynicism directed at organized religion and new age phoniness, the listener hears Wyatt in good humor with razor-sharp political sensibilities, and in fantastic musical form. The songs on Cuckooland are, in many ways, the most accessible he's written since Nothing Can Stop Us. Shleep had its moments in terms of this kind of "accessibility," but more often than not saturated itself in Wyatt's consummate and wonderfully listenable weirdness. Here, on cuts like "Old European," one of five collaborations with poet Alfreda Benge, Wyatt's wife, French salon music, smoky jazz from the cool jazz era, bossa rhythms, and Anglo melodies entwine in a bewitching nocturnal pop song. Others, such as "Beware," one of a pair of writing collaborations with Karen Mantler — who contributed two more fine songs written for Wyatt'set — feature the strident harmonics of post-millennial jazz as it intersects in dialogue with pop forms from the ancient to the future. Mantler's and Wyatt's voices sound lovely together in this tale of paranoia and woe, and Wyatt's trumpet solo is gorgeous. Wyatt's reading of Ms. Benge's "Lullaloop" is a gorgeous, wooly bit of swinging New Orleans jazz, shot through with Weller's bluesy, distorted, electric guitar solo and big, wondrous trombones by Whitehead. Wyatt covers, in his own fashion, the Boudleaux Bryant's classic "Raining In My Heart," accompanied only by his piano, and does a stellar, deeply emotional take of the Jobim & DeMoraes' classic "Insensataez." Wyatt's "Trickle Down"" is a knotty bit of loping post bop jazz interspersed with sax samples from "Old Europe," and killer double bass runs from Yaron Stavi. "Lullaby For Hamza," and the instrumental "La Anda Yalam" (the latter written by Nizar Zreik), portrayt two sides of the Gulf Wars, one dovetailing the other, bringing about with unnerving, poetically moving, and damning conviction, the side of these wars not often revealed to Westerners. These are tomes full of melodic and harmonic creativity, offered as deathly serious as words of elegance and grace, and become elegies sending the listener off with more to think about than a pop album would normally dictate. Wyatt has decorated his own booklet with lively, minimal artworks, and has annotated his songs to document certain facts, locations and occurrences, making the entire package indispensable. Most importantly, Wyatt has demonstrated once again that it makes no difference what else is going on in the pop world, he still creates a fiercely independent and wide open notion of song and composition that is always abundantly "musical," topically relevant, as well as entertaining, provocative, and completely, utterly engaging from top to bottom.
(amg 9/10)

Roland Orzabal [2000] Tomcats Screaming Outside

[01] Ticket To The World
[02] Low Life
[03] Hypnoculture
[04] Bullets For Brains
[05] For The Love Of Cain
[06] Under Ether
[07] Day By Day By Day By Day By Day
[08] Dandelion
[09] Hey Andy!
[10] Kill Love
[11] Snowdrop
[12] Maybe Our Days Are Numbered



amg: Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal is a musical actor, an abstract poet, and a music connoisseur. His lush lyrical imagery has provided vivid imagism and an emotion sparked from his own inquisitive nature since fronting one of the '80s' biggest acts. Creative differences and signature arrogance allowed he and bandmate Curt Smith's musical magic to dissolve after 1989's The Seeds of Love, making Orzabal's solo days fronting Tears for Fears to be disenchanting and practically forced. And despite rumor of the duo coming back together to write and perform under the moniker that made them a staple among the charts, Orzabal issued his first proper debut album just after the dawn of the millennium. Tomcats Screaming Outside illustrates Orzabal's bright mind with classic philosophical disposition; however, he's honest and eager, no longer concerned with the past. He refrains from psychologically picking his mind apart; rather, he's plucking from social indifference and its want for quick desire. His focus on sharp electronics and the uncomplicated nature of songs such as "Hypnoculture" and "For the Love of Cain" present Orzabal's newfound comfort. He's still ambitious, yes, but not arrogantly so. "Dandelion" grazes with nasty riffs, leaving Orzabal to twist his large vocals to stretch alongside them. "Ticket to the World" and "Maybe Our Days Are Numbered" ironically capture Orzabal's fixation with a greater love, another hurt, and a life outside of what everyone already knows. Tomcats Screaming Outside aptly defines his burgeoning creative desire as well as his hungry nature to write a song that reaches outside the heart and beyond the mind. The overall composition of this album is tough, a bit young with musical instrumentation, but a decent look at Orzabal's keen talent as both a singer and a songwriter. He's still got it.
(amg 8/10)