Mike
Bennett
Reviews,
Part II:
December,
2001

Scroll down for reviews of releases by The Guess Who, Lassie Foundation/Duraluxe and The Witch Hazel Sound. Click here for reviews of releases by The Lolas, Ashby, Post Office, Pulp and the latest Christmas collection from Parasol.

Shelby Lynne
Love, Shelby

(Island)

islandrecords.com

shelbylynne.com

Release Date: November 13, 2001

Regardless of the propriety of giving a Best New Artist Grammy to an artist after she released her fifth album, Shelby Lynne deserved the recognition. I Am Shelby Lynne was a delightful record, with insinuating retro R & B songs, showing off Lynne's impressive voice in the best of all possible settings. Lynne has stayed on the merry-go-round long enough to get an opportunity to grab the brass ring again, and has decided to pull out all the stops. This was evident in her decision to hire Glen Ballard to produce this effort. The man behind Alanis Morrisette, Wilson-Phillips, No Doubt and other megasellers gives Lynne commercial cache. He may also give her a degree of insulation from critics who will blame Ballard for any and all shortcomings on the disc.

There certainly is blame to be had - this album falls well short of the artistic excellence of its predecessor. But it is not a disaster. Moreover, the production seems to be one of the least likely culprits. The songwriting is the more likely suspect. And suspect it is.

Lynne and Ballard co-wrote six of the ten tunes, with Lynne taking care of three and a cover of John Lennon's "Mother" finishing the disc off. It seems that Lynne and Ballard hedged their bets trying to balance contemporary tunesmithing with the retroisms of the last album. The end result is that the album is more diverse than I Am, but lacks a certain focus. In fact, the disc's title might be Lynne's expression of love for her record collection.

"Jesus on a Greyhound" sounds like a melding of Lucinda Williams and Alanis Morrisette, without the lyrical strength of the former or, thankfully, the strident tones of the latter. Still, Lynne oversings the number, which is pretty clunky. Lynne goes for ersatz Bonnie Raitt on "Ain't it the Truth" and comes out more like Chi Coltrane (of "Thunder and Lightning" fame) or Kiki Dee. Ballard does get heavy handed on "I Can't Wait". The low key beginning sounds like The Carpenters trying to rip McCartney, with Lynne hitting some real heartfelt high notes on the first chorus. Initially, Ballard subtly layers more instruments, but the rock guitars kick in on the last chorus, and things just sound a bit forced. I like about two-thirds of the tune.

There are still enough songs to remind you why Lynne was one of the stories of 2000. "Killing Kind" is just a great commercial mid-tempo number, a breezy, kicking back light R & B inflected tune with a multi-tracked Shelby choir in the refrain. An even stronger R & B aroma wafts from "Bend", which is a nice variation on Al Green's classic sides for Hi Records. Lynne takes a straightforward pop-rock approach on "Wall in your Heart", which is very Sheryl Crowish.
There is half of a pretty good album here. The album shows that Lynne is still not a strong enough writer to carry an entire album. Rather than continue working with Ballard, Lynne might be better served by finding a Peter Asher-type who could find some great outside songwriters and cover choices and make her the Linda Ronstadt of the 21st Century.

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The Guess Who
Shakin' All Over

(Sundazed)

sundazed.com

Lately, things appear to be going The Guess Who's way. The inclusion of "American Woman" in the movie American Beauty, Lenny Kravitz's successful, though awful, version of the same song and a recently acclaimed reunion tour. For me, though, the coolest recent Guess Who activity has related to the rediscovery of their earliest material. First, the garage burner "It's My Pride" was included on Nuggets 2, and now Sundazed has kicked out 24 tracks of splendid early Guess Who.

The liner notes establish that this Winnepeg group, under the name Chad Allan and the Expressions, was the original Anglophile band. With wunderkind guitarist Randy Bachman, the quintet had a pipeline to British rock and roll, and specialized in covers of those artists, including Cliff Richard, whose "Tough Enuff" is included here. Moreover, some of Bachman's playing shows the clear influence of The Shadows, whom he revered. The band's Brit emphasis meant it was doing Beatles covers before the Fab Four even had a record out in North America.

The band hit both the Canadian and U.S. hit parades with a fine rendition of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates's "Shakin' All Over". The single was shipped to DJs with no artist listing, just the appellation Guess Who? The band was thus rechristened. The success of the single led to more recording and more Canadian hits. The sides with Allan on lead vocals are fine evocations of British Invasion rock. In addition to Randy Bachman's obvious guitar excellence, drummer Garry Peterson is the subtle star - this guy was nearly the equal to Ringo Starr in his uncanny ability to lay down a fat beat that never overwhelmed the song. Check out "All Right" to hear how Peterson was able to fill a dance floor instantly.

Other tunes in the Allan era were quite spiffy. "I Should Have Realized" was co-written by the original frontman, and is a nice number that fits somewhere between the Beatles, Searchers and Beau Brummels. Meanwhile, "Baby's Birthday" is a swell Rickenbacker jangler, with a nifty pseudo-C & W feel.
Though Allan was fine, it's likely that the band would have been confined to footnote status had Burton Cummings not joined on keyboards. Bachman, like many songwriters of the era, was evolving and toughening up his sound, and Cummings' robust vocals and dynamic stage presence were more in keeping with this direction. Suddenly, The Guess Who became a tight-as-hell garage band. In addition to the aforementioned "It's My Pride", the band waxed other greasy rockers like Cummings' proto-psych "If You Don't Want Me", the Zombies-meet-the Sonics collision "Believe Me", and the Yardbirdsy blues rock of "Seven Long Years". They didn't totally abandon their original Brit Invasion roots, as evidenced by "Gonna Search", with its riffy verses and sweet chorus driven by another great Peterson backbeat.

This compilation proves that the pre-charttopping Guess Who were an extremely talented rock combo, in some ways akin to Paul Revere and the Raiders in their ability to tackle any contemporary rock style of the ever changing mid-'60s. This may not be the most important chapter in their history, but it is the most fun by far.

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The Lassie Foundation/Duraluxe
I Duel Sioux And The Ale Of Saturn

(Grand Theft Autumn)

grandtheftautumn.com

thelassiefoundation.com

duraluxe.com

The split CD - how punk! But unless the Thrasher magazine crowd develops a penchant for pretty guitar tunes, I doubt you'll find either The Lassie Foundation or Duraluxe invited to the next Warped tour.

However, The Lassie Foundation would probably acquit themselves well on a Beach Boys tribute album. While the band's sound emanates from the dreamscape horizon where lights such as My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver and Boo Radleys shined in a sweetly droning manner, some of their work sparkles with a Brian Wilsonesque magic. This is bleeding obvious on the lovely "The Psalm of the Strongest Man" and the swoony and poppy "All Together Now". The former has wonderful harmony vocals and layers on guitars, percussion and other sounds on a tune that has a very simple melodic structure. The song slowly washes over you. "All Together Now" is not as inspired by Wilson's production as much as the melody. Fans of The Davenports will melt along whilst smiling. But the best song is the crashing "Lost All Ways", a song that begins with a great intertwining of rhythm guitar riff and lead guitar part (Byrdsy Rickenbacker fills), a simple melody, building to a big chorus (sing along to this refrain - "I love you so/my Mexico"), a great use of dynamics as the song breaks back to the unaccompanied rhythm guitar, before building the song up again until, in the last minute, the dam bursts in a lovely frenzy of guitars, harmonies and powerhouse drumming.
Brilliant!

Duraluxe is well paired with The Lassie Foundation, sharing a core melodic sensibility. Duraluxe shows that it can go the big guitar route on "Hit So Hard", which shoots out sheets of axe noise at the beginning, a heavy bottom from Tommy Wedge's thick bass playing, all to get to the chorus that grafts an anthemic U2ish lead guitar part to warm harmony vocals: "I'm hitting back/I'm seeing stars/you hit so hard".

The strength of Duraluxe, however, is ornate pop with multifaceted arrangements. Like the spacey "She Wants a Lucky Strike", with Troy Daugherty showing off a falsetto vocal approach - the song is a must for fans of Sparklehorse and Grandaddy. "Ruled by Fear" is just a lovely minature - they have just a bit too much rock power in their approach to be an orch-pop group, but there is some of that vibe going on.

Duraluxe surprises on the final track, erupting into a basic rock and roll number on "The Ones You Trust". Still, the band can't hide it's smarts, with Wedge busting out some intense counterpoint backing vocals while Daugherty sings at the eye of a musical hurricane.

This is about as satisfying as a split disc can get. Now if someone can please explain the title to me.

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The Witch Hazel Sound
This World, Then The Fireworks…

(Hidden Agenda)

parasol.com

The Witch Hazel Sound is like an overcast fall day - chilly, but not unbearable, most of the leaves off the trees, reminding you that although summer is gone, it isn't so far off in the distance that you've forgotten how bright the sun can shine. This disc has bright, ebullient melodies with wistful instrumentation - the guitars lightly play along, as the organ carries the melodies and horns and harmonies and more keyboards dot the atmosphere.

A majestic trumpet heralds "Music Becomes Vibration", an invitation to float into Witch Hazel World. The verses are just bursts of melodic asides with sweet vocals. Mike Split finds his cranny in the mix, and doodles away in sympathetic fashion on bass, while Kevin Coral sends down streams of guitar, organ and odd squiggles on his Moog, adding some discordant texture in the midst of the sonic swirl.

Upon accepting the invitation, you are surrounded by post-modern takes on Simon & Garfunkel, The Association, The Mamas And The Papas and like minded blissmeisters of that era. The band wears the S & G connection on its sleeve, tipping its hand on "Kiss Me Monster", with its opening line "Hello darkness fill my soul" (and later directly quoting the opening line of "The Sounds of Silence"). Supported by the silky strings of the Sampo Quartet, "Blue City" also has a Paul Simon melodic jones, and a haunting quality that may remind some of the quieter work of cult sensations The Sneetches.
A very specific haunted corner is hit on "Ballad of Constance Money". The song has subtle chord changes that induce goosebumps, as Kevin Coral underpins the proceedings with keyboard lines that evoke the sense of standing alone in a vast space, with nothing but sad thoughts to keep you going. The keyboards layer further during an instrumental break, with a pointed Coral guitar solo somehow breaking yet adding to the tension - and something about the ending of this song fills me with a wan feeling akin to The Korgis' classic "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime". Meanwhile, singer Mark F. recites the refrain "When you feel unhappy/there's no pill to take its place/rely on empty promise/cut back the empty waste", a dose of wisdom without false hope.

Fans of artists like Zumpano and The Ladybug Transistor will probably gravitate towards the semi-bounce of numbers like "Fireworks", which sports the best harmony vocals on the record, and "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", which augments the sweet sounds with a jazzy Fender Rhodes (is there any other kind), mournful moog sounds and drummer Craig Lisik doubling on Hawaiian guitar.

This is a little gem of a record. Listen to it and then go jump in a pile of leaves.

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