Showing posts with label Studio album. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Studio album. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Scissor Sisters - Night Work

Jake ShearsJake Shears via last.fm






An amazing new album reaches 5th in top sales !






Product Details


Four years after their mediocre sophomore effort, Scissor Sisters is back. Between albums they lost a band member and scrapped an album that was 18-months in the making. Upset, Jake Shears flew to Berlin to escape for a while. He found more than solace there and became inspired by the nightlife in the busy city which in turn became the launching pad of what is arguably the best of their three albums.

What's inside is perfectly described by the Robert Mapplethorpe cover: sexy, dirty, playful. It's an album showcasing a band rediscovering the fun of their hungry years. Night Work could easily be considered a concept album, but feels more like a raunchy history of pop music lesson. The band, with the help of producer Stuart Price (Madonna, Kylie Minogue), have encapsulated 1977 - 1982 in nearly perfect chronological order as homage to the occupation of hitting the clubs. In other words, the night work.

The opening track is an overture to a suite of music easily made into an underground Broadway show. "Night Work" tells us why we're here while the next track -- "Whole New Way" -- chronicles Jake's trip to Berlin. When he sings, "I found a whole new way to love you...it's going to blow your mind but, if not, this time we're through," he's not singing of a human relationship, but the one with his music-making abilities.

"Side 1 continues to take us through the 70 s with songs that would make Disco Tex, Foxy and early B-52 s proud. It also features background vocal turns by 80 s icon Helen Terry on "Whole New Way," Kylie Minogue on the excellent "Any Which Way," and Santigold on "Running Out." The second half is full of Kraftwerk, DEVO and Gary Numan in its journey through the early part of the 80 s.

And when we arrive at the last track, "Invisible Light," Del Marquis begins his Pink Floyd guitar and slowly the track builds into an epic disco song Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder were famous for bringing into existence. It's the swirling decadence of an opium den -- hyper, calming and dangerous all at the same time. Even Sir Ian McKellen shows up for some wickedness.

The only low spots are the bland, made-for-the-masses arrangements of "Fire With Fire" and "Skin Tight." These two songs seem a bit out of place within the confides of an album filled with music that show the band having fun with their sound. Still they're the kind of songs you'd wish were on radio more often.

Night Work is a cocaine-induced night at Studio 54 in its prime. It's writhing pleasure mixed with sweat from physical exertion -- dance related or not. If only all history lessons were this fun.

You Have To Hear: Ana Matronic's hilarious cooing bridge on "Any Which Way."


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Jack Johnson - To the Sea

Jack Johnson (born May 18, 1975) Hawaii-born m...Image via Wikipedia






Biography

Former pro surfer turned singer-songwriter Jack Johnson is a native of Hawaii, and his music reflects the laid back surfer attitude and crystal clarity of the water. Sweet, simple, acoustic surfer-rock is Johnson's specialty and each of his five studio albums have found an increasing audience.

Product Details

  • Audio CD (June 1, 2010)
  • Original Release Date: June 1, 2010
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Brushfire
  • ASIN: B003C1QIO6
  • Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #4 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
    #4 in  Music > Rock
    #4 in  Music > Pop
"I can't tell you anything but the truth." These words, sung by Jack Johnson in his latest studio album, To The Sea, define the ethos of a man born and raised in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

You could say it was a father's solo sail from California to Hawaii that opened his son's future fate and underpinned it with a personal mythology, but it was Jack's ability to learn his own lessons from life and the sea that birthed his astonishing alchemy of music and poetry.

Truth has found plenty of room to breathe in each of Jack's albums (and in all of his work, from surfing films to his nonprofit, the Kokua Hawaii Foundation), and it comes home to a deeper heart in To The Sea. Here, with his brothers in music - Adam Topol (drums), Merlo Podlewski (bass), and Zach Gill (piano and melodica) - he's on a journey to the center of himself, and to all of us.

It's a transformational crossing, a wide gyre (musically and lyrically) circling home. "You and your heart shouldn't feel so far apart," he sings in the album's opener ... and then:
Road signs were stolen Left here holding this flame Who stole my patience Who stole my way I'm lost I'm too tired to try

Jack is all about closing the distance, bridging the gap between who we are and the invisible stories that have shaped us. But even while his music is about bringing things together, he always seems aware of the larger truth:

You're so sweet to me In a world that's not always fair ... We could watch it from the clouds We can't stop it anyhow It's not ours

It's not ours ... and then there's the realization that all of this is transient, that this moment and this time will vanish from our lives as surely as our ancestors:

I don't want you to know Let's not go to sleep tonight It's not that it goes too fast It's just that it goes at all
Out there in the so-called real world, some things are inevitable:
These problems they breathe Their fire is real ... Even when you're asleep They'll be here still Breathing out or in
So the call is to dig deep, and then dig deeper:
Run my dear son We've got to get to the trees And then keep on going all the way ...
We've got to get right down to the sea "Water is the subconscious," says Jack, "and that water for me is the ocean. To get to the sea is being able to dig in and touch things that aren't on the surface. That reference - that `we've got to get to the sea' - is about a father leading his son to try to understand himself."
Inevitably, each of us is here to follow our own path, to discover the inner myths that have unconsciously formed us and framed our journey:
It said, shadows cut across the hero's face He falls from grace until a little bird sang `The truth is never ending we're just here pretending lets all laugh so that we don't cry' ...
Jack's music has a way of winning you over and bringing you back into yourself, which is to say that his music and lyrics have a universality. He's found a language that goes to the heart, borne on music that seems to bridge lost connections. If not exactly explaining, this effect at least points to his worldwide appeal and his way of bringing all sorts of people together. Jack Johnson's music is like something contagious that's also good for you.
So ... there's a myth about a young man who goes to sea, and he sails alone across the greatest ocean. He sails through storms. He catches fish, he learns to navigate by the stars ... he comes to Hawaii ... and he has a son, and the son, too, goes to the sea ... again and again, following and leading ... into the present ... into the very real and unknown.

I can't tell you anything but the truth. What is this place? Who am I? Why did we come here? I don't know. But I don't know that we're meant to know.

Product Description

2010 release, the fifth studio album from the acclaimed singer/songwriter. The album was produced by Robert Carranza, Jack Johnson, and his bandmates Merlo Podlewski, Zach Gill and Adam Topol. To The Sea features guest appearances from the likes of G. Love, and Paula Fuga. The album was recorded at the Mango Tree Studio in Hawaii, and the Solar Powered Plastic Plant in LA using 100% solar power.


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