Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

Maybe.
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Jason Mraz has always seemed like a puppy, always buoyant and ever so eager to please, His albums were catchy and fun, light pop with folk elements. Not so with "Yes!" Moving from slow song to slow song, Mraz has evolved from a fun and loveable lightweight to straight up middle of the road schmaltz. I guess you can call this an attempt at maturity, but with the exception of "Shine," things kind of blend into each other.

He's now working with an all-female, rock-folk band called Raining Jane, but you'd never know it from the general facelessness of the proceedings. They do add some pretty harmonies (like the lush opener "Rise - Love Someone") and some interesting instrumental touches (the sitar on "Shine") and the occasional bouncy bit (the drum beat of "Everywhere"). Yet the album personifies the definition of 'easy listening,' as Mraz doesn't seem to want to challenge his persona as a singer songwriter. It's not that an artist can't swing into a folk style and make it work, John Mayer proved that with his "Born and Raised." However, Mraz is taking it a little too laid back to make things happen. "Yes!" is still eager to please, but the man who laments the lack of "Quiet" in the modern world is taking that a tad too literally here.

Short Fuse
3 Out Of 5 Stars

I picked up on A Fine Frenzy after seeing her open a Rufus Wainwright concert a few years back. "Bomb In a Birdcage" is their (or her, since the band is basically a backdrop for Alison Sudol's piano musings) second album, and a bit of a shock after seeing her perform warm, meandering piano pop onstage. "Bomb In A Birdcage" is a band album, with electronic drumming, gleeful Regina Spektor pop, and a few of those moments that won me over in concert.

Sudol likes to mix her happiest music to her saddest moments, which make a song like "Happier" such an exquisite break-up song. She also keeps some of her folksier elements in place for "What I Wouldn't Do" and "Bird of Summer." Some of these songs not just reflect Spektor, but also make one wonder if there were a bunch of Tori Amos CD's on her bedstand. Sudol has that knack for fairy tale poetry in her music, as found in the tale of the lonely lighthouse keeper residing in "The Beacon," which also happens to be "Bomb In A Birdcage's" most beautiful songs. What's lacking here are memorable songs, even at most of them being in the pop range of three and a half minutes, little sticks. The only song with a real kick to it is "Electric Twist," which has a slippery bass line and a vocal that sounds less affected than most of the bulk of "Bomb In A Birdcage."

If you count the couple of songs I've mentioned and the fact that, when she's not trying too hard, Sudol has an expressive voice, "Bomb In a Birdcage" is an OK album. But I can't get past the fact that the sweetness of the voice I heard in concert is trying to rock ("We Stood Up") or just sounds like she's over-singing the material. What I saw and heard A Fine Frenzy do on stage suggests better is possible.

In a voice both pure and crooked
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Ian Matthews got a surge of creativity after the success of his Jules Shear tribute album Walking a Changing Line. Shortly after, this album of mostly new folkish material was released, and it is, in my estimation, one of his best solo albums. "Pure and Crooked" (which happens to be a line from one of Shears' songs on the prior album) is a richer sounding set that WaCL, in as much as the instrumentation no longer favors the keyboards that dominated. "Dominoes" kicks the CD off with a poppy number, something also missing beforehand.

He also sounds deeply entwined to the material, be it the nostalgic mourning of "Busby's Babes," the snarling lyric of "New Shirt" or even a terrific cover of Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street." I even thought he outdid Gabriel's original. Given that Matthews was usually heavy on outside songwriting in the past, it makes the eight self-penned numbers here all the more exciting. This is great stuff, lost when the Gold Castle label went out of business. While Amazon only offers downloads at this page, used CD copies are going cheap. I can recommend putting "Pure and Crooked" in your library.

Gems by Jewel
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Jewel's story could be an album unto itself. She started out in Alaska, came to California when her parents divorced, then began living out of a van and playing wherever she could find a gig. It made her debut, "Pieces of You," a huge album in 1995, with collegiate poetry and sensitive soulful singing, That kicked off a near two decade career that fills this first Greatest Hits with everything from singer-songwriter folk to Nashville country, from children's albums to a flirtation with dance pop.

Her sincerity carries each twist of her career and makes the songs sound legitimate, even if the stylistic contortions may have occasionally let her fans feel bewildered. But Jewel was the kind of artist who would dabble in whatever tickled her fancy, including writing books of poetry and issuing a spoken word album to accompany them. Like Tori Amos and Natalie Merchant from roughly the same period, Jewel would follow wherever her muse took her.

So you get the earnest "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "Foolish Games" from the debut, setting the template for much of her career. Clear and pure vocals over pleading lyrics, which was much of what "Pieces of You" was made of, and propelled it to over 10 Million in sales. While that album was a rough, unpolished recording, Jewel got better fast and the slicker but still true to her roots on "Spirit," using Madonna's producer Patrick Leonard. Despite that slickness, "Hands" and "Down So Long" became substantial hits. "This Way" followed in the same footsteps, yielding "Standing Still."

Then came the big U-Turn of "0304." Appears Jewel also had a thing for Brittany Spears, as the techy dance pop of "Intuition" shows in all its big beat glory. It was a move that didn't last long, because the next record was the autobiographical concept album, "Goodbye Alice In Wonderland." The sensitive singer songwriter confessions were back with "Good Day." And as so many of the 80's and 90's female folk singers were wont to do, Jewel also discovered country on "Perfectly Clear" (repped here by "Stronger Woman"). basically, it still sounded like the same Jewel, but this time with steel guitars. She also recorded the more folk than country "Sweet and Wild," which felt more like a folk record but still held some of the twang. However, her first album of Children's music gives this collection its only dud, a recording of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."

Finally, there are the bonus tracks. Taking obvious aim at both contemporary pop and modern country, Jewel takes tow of her best known songs and recreates them. First the Pistol Annies add some countrified harmonies to an elongated "You Were Meant for Me." Then she gets Kelly Clarkson to add some windpower on "Foolish Games." The duet doesn't really better the original, but given the time expended between the first and the current version, it isn't a stretch to think they might get another go-around on their respectively aimed formats. Plus one brand new song, "Two Hearts Breaking," which has her smooth voice over a contemporary beat but is still very much Jewel.

Collected together, you can follow a path that is decidedly oddball but most certainly commercial. Jewel's "Greatest Hits" is a perfect summary of 80's and 90's sensitive singer songwriters wrapped into one very succinct CD and captures just about all the biggest songs in a career that still took on its share of left turns along the way.

Tribal Influences
4 Out Of 5 Stars

"In My Tribe" was the breakthrough album for 10,000 Maniacs, and it's easy to hear why. After a few recordings of self-conscious, arty pop (found mainly on "Hope Chest"), they tightened there sound into a more direct folk pop and Natalie Merchant found her voice as a sturdy instrument. Their penchant for message songs remained in place, but on the artier songs that remained ("Verdi Cries"), they discovered a grace that had not been previously there.

The secret weapon after Natalie was guitarist Robert Buck, who could shimmer and solo in perfect compliment to Natalie's poetry and statements. They tread ground about child abuse ("What's The Matter Here"), illiteracy ("Cherry Tree") and the loneliness of growing old ("Campfire Song" featuring Micheal Stipe of soulmates R.E.M.). That isn't to say they could be lighthearted, as the wedding of "My Sister Rose" or the single/video of "Like The Weather."

I also saw the band on this tour (with Tracy Chapman!), and they were more dynamic a live act than the records ever indicated. Despite the dropping of "Peace Train" (my CD still has it, though) due to the controversy that then surrounded Cat Stevens, the album was a message album whose message didn't get diluted in the translation. "In My Tribe" is the best of 10,000 Maniacs' albums, and the only way you could do better is with the collection "Campfire Songs."



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Love is a Three Star Rated Album
3 Out of 5 Stars
 
Jason Mraz is a simple pleasure when it comes to music. His reggae lite "I'm Yours" became the best Jimmy Buffet knock off in years, so it's only natural for him to want to go for that groove again. "Love Is a Four Letter Word" is just that kind of a record; easy listening for the vegan crowd, a happy but not sappy set of songs and at least one attempt at cloning "I'm Yours" with the single "Living In The Moment." Then there's the Jimmy Buffet comparison, the other single, "I Won't Give Up." Mraz is - in his own words - "easy breezy" ("Living for The Moment") in a way that makes Jack Johnson sound like Ronnie James Dio. He weaves in-between the happy pop of "Frank D Fixer" or the weariness of brokenhearted pop in "In Your Hands" without sounding like he's committed to very much. "Love Is A Four Letter Word" will fill the needs of those who think John Mayer has gotten too cerebral or who were too young to catch Jimmy Buffet on the first go around.



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