Label: Slow Down Records
Category: Music
Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
UPC: 619981129725
EAN: 0619981129725
ASIN: B00022XE86
Release Date: 2004-05-04
|
|
Artist: Amelia
Label: Slow Down Records Category: Music Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 619981129725 EAN: 0619981129725 ASIN: B00022XE86 Release Date: 2004-05-04 |
After All
General
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Alt-Country & Americana
| Country
| Styles
| Music
General
| Rock
| Styles
| Music
Pop Rock
| Pop
| Styles
| Music
Tracks:
Similar Items:
Amazon.com
Maybe it's those rainy days, but the Pacific Northwest has been cultivating a unique brand of intimate, back-porch music. But while bands like Vancouver's Be Good Tanyas lean heavily on elements of blues and twang, Portland's Amelia adds a bit of a torch-song feel. Singer Teisha Helgerson's voice is an affecting instrument that is placed right up front in the mix, revealing all of the dewy, slightly rough edges that surround its essential silkiness and power. She is aided by literate songs with heartbreaking melodies composed by her and other members of the band. Composed is the right word: the songs seem well crafted without ever descending into preciousness. Multi-instrumentalist Jesse Emerson's "All But the Sea" sounds like poetry set to music, a dangerous circumstance in all but the deftest hands. Here it works beautifully, dealing with big themes like life, love, and God, saved from pretentiousness by its sparseness of word, its melodic embellishment, and a vocal approach that pervades this album and gives it a timeless quality. At three minutes and seven seconds, the song lasts not a moment longer than it should and you are sorry when it is over. The same could be said for this CD. <I>--Michael Ross</I>Customer Reviews:
Can't Stop Spinnin'................2005-07-10
Hooked.......2004-06-23
About "After All":
In my opinion, Jigsaw is the standout song. Unfortunately Amazon's sound clip doesn't include the chorus that contains the hooks, so you'll probably wonder what I'm talking about. The sound clip also lacks the higher frequencies so it is harder to hear the wide-open driving-through-the-desert-in-a-convertible feeling.
The song "Better than Sleeping Alone" sounds a little like an old black & white detective movie crossed with a WWII torch song. It grows on you like all the other songs. The sound clip suffers from the lack of high frequencies (the cymbals are supposed to evoke finger snaps), and chopping off the chorus at the end.
The chorus of "St. James" is the best part of the song, with more insistent vocals, drums and even handclaps. You wouldn't guess it from the sound clip.
"The Last Pariah" is a song that builds up to a short guitar instrumental and increasing instrumentation in the repeated chorus. The clip doesn't have it.
I like the song "Blackbird Pie", which is the oddity that adds some spice. It has a staccatto beat and percussion, electric guitar for flavor, and sounds kinda like a street-corner band the way some of Creedence Clearwater Revival sounded like a street-corner band.
The song "I Read the News Today" is a song available on the KEXP performance I mentioned in my review of Amelia's first album. I didn't think much of it at first, but eventually found it popping in my head after several listens. The vocals make the song.
The Amazon reviewer only wrote about the song "All but the Sea" - slow jazz singing over very spare instrumentation. It's done well, but I just don't like this style of music. None of the other songs are like this.
Cannonball sounds exactly like Aimee Mann on one of the slower songs on the I'm With Stupid album, except that Teisha has a better voice.
Music Album:
Music CD
Visits Planet Earth/Interstellar Low Ways ~ Sun Ra
Mosaic ~ Pete Christlieb with Bob Cooper
Time Out for Blues ~ Fessor's Big City Band