borrowed tunes

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February 28, 2005

quick takes: mary gauthier, kings of leon

mary gauthier :: mercy now

Mary Gauthier's last album, Filth and Fire, was a good enough brand of country-folk songwriter material that I took notice of her signing to Lost Highway records, the fairly tasteful new home of Elvis Costello, along with other greats such as Willie Nelson and Gauthier's chief inspiration, Lucinda Williams. They also have Ryan Adams on the roster, but that's another story.

With the weight of expectation on it, this disc comes across as a fairly bland exercise in Texas (or, in her case, TX via LA) songwriting and delivery. The familiar tropes - wind, rain, drink, grace for the forsaken, etc. - are all here, along with their standard musical themes. Much of the music is played at a glacial pace, and it's almost excruciating to listen to the soloists hang on through each note. Nothing stands out, or if so it's awkward. Lucinda Williams' secret is the menace of emotion, whether it's an unhinged anger or a brutal sadness. Mary Gauthier plays it safe, and in doing so she doesn't come close to the first rank of songwriter music.

General critical reaction has been kinder, if sparse at this point - Uncut magazine, in a four-star review, thinks the well-worn metaphors of the lyrics signal Gauthier's newfound universality and transcendence, and claim if it was Lucinda Williams' name on the cover, you wouldn't be disappointed.

Gurf Morlix - the official connection to Lucinda, as her early-days guitarist - does a beatiful job making this album sound pristine, and a couple of songs stand on the shoulders of his efforts: try the title track.

kings of leon :: aha shake heartbreak

Kings of Le-yawn. The formula here is a half-baked riff (though couple oversell themselves) not supported by any song structure. The vocalist seems entirely content to sound retarded - hey, I gotta call 'em like I see 'em. Oh, and the vaginal orchid on the cover hasn't been done before (it wasn't funny on their first album either). It's the policy here not to post mp3s when we're in trash mode, so go over to their web site and find your way through the pussy flower assault for a video of "The Bucket", which you could probably get me to listen to again if you didn't tell me who it was. Jackasses can also download buddy icons.

Posted by borrowed_tunes at February 28, 2005 10:08 PM

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