blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with jeff buckley

Meet Elliott
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Elliott Smith was a singer songwriter weened on punk and grunge, with the soul of Nick Drake and a brain filled with arrangements by The Beatles and Brian Wilson. Which made him about as unlikely a pop star as any man on the 90's could have been. Add a still unresolved death while he was recording "From a Basement On A Hill," and Elliott begins to find his name mentioned next to the likes of Jeff Buckley; a gifted singer songwriter whose best work could have easily still been ahead of him.

"An Introduction to Elliott Smith" does a good job at capturing what Smith was all about and where the buzz over him was generated. He had a knack for insidious, low key melodies that would blossom after multiple listenings, as well as the kind of tortured lyrics an angsty person could wallow in for days. "Miss Misery," which hauled in an Oscar Nomination after Gus Van Zandt included it in "Good Will Hunting," is a perfect example. Included here as a demo version, it still creeps under the skin as Smith's light voice whispers "I'll fake it through the day with the help of some Johnny Walker Red." As opening lines to a lousy love affair go, there are few that top it.

But Smtih could also whip up a tasty pop confection, as both "Happiness" and "Ballad of Big Nothing" show in a stately way. Despite the tormented underpinnings, both songs are catchy and melodic, the kind of songs that would stick in your ear until you realized what exactly Smith was singing about. He mastered both the art of production and ambiance (the subtle, cricket chirping of "Twilight"), yet never managed a hit single. Smith only cracked the top 20 with an album after his death, when "From a Basement" peaked at 19. Like Buckley, or perhaps Nick Drake, Smith created a legacy that now has a modest but permanent canon of work that gains in luster the longer you listen.

Cold War Kids in a Grown Up World
4 Out of 5 Stars

These guys used to be loud and gritty, even with the undertones of hidden anthems on their earlier albums. For their third full length album (and first for Geffen/Interscope) "Mine Is Yours," Cold War Kids drop all pretense towards indie-rock sound and go full charge for the areanas of the world. They've discovered their inner U2 and the ghost of Jeff Buckley as seeped in as well. They may have even caught a case of the Arcade Fires, while we're at it. Which is to say that "Mine is Yours" aims at big targets and bold sounds, and mostly hits its marks.

Singer Nathan Willett is a pretty soulful dude for a belter, which makes some of the more awkward lyrics (like "the crown on my head is heavy on me" from the otherwise great "Out of The Wilderness) sound positively inspirational, and when he gets the perfect match, he is. The title track and "Sensitive Kid" are polar opposites with the same effect; where the title track roars forth like a star climbing anthem, "Sensitive Kid" strips down to a slinky bass and piano drop ins to just grab you by the collar for a good shaking. Then, when they sneak back to their earlier, grittier blues sound on "Cold Toes on The Cold Floor," you understand that understated guitarist Jonnie Russell - who spends most of this album buried in producer Jaques King's reverb - is a coming axe-hero.

"Mine Os Yours" is going to fluster some of the Cold War Kids fans that will scream sell-out at A) Signing to Interscope and B) CWK's new-found sonic richness. To me, it's just a natural progression. "Mine Is Yours" is an unexpected surprise for me, and has slowly climbed into the upper reaches of my 2011 favorites.