Not in love with My Chemical Romance
What’s the fuss about? Re-hashing 70’s/80’s melodrama, they sound like Meatloaf before his voice broke. They’re probably a bit of a spectacle live, with lots of noise and effects, but contrary to popular opinion, style is no substitute for substance. I think Meatloaf’s songs were more meaningful. Alright, I’d rather listen to them than any ‘boy band’ you care to mention, but that doesn’t make it right!
Labels: My Chemical Romance
The Good, the Bad and the Queen
This is the latest Damon Albarn project which is what in the eighties might have been called a supergroup, consisting as it does of Damon, Paul Simonon of The Clash, Simon Tong of The Verve and Tony Allen of Africa 70.
It’s unmistakeably Albarn though, the album sounds like a hybrid of Blur and Gorillaz, with his vocals and melodies weaving in and out of the band’s contribution, full of dynamics and unexpected twists, and a series of studio effects that sometimes work and sometimes get in the way.
Everyone says this is a grower, but I must admit to being disappointed so far. This was an album I’d been looking forward to for a while, but it just doesn’t seem to gel. To me, this is as much about production as anything else. Danger Mouse did a great job for Gorillaz, but here the touch seems less certain with a much broader range of musicians’ talents to bring together.
I read a report of one of the recent concerts to launch the album where a seemingly disgruntled Albarn twice brought the opening number to a halt, imploring the others to focus. Maybe this is telling in that the project as a whole has not quite come together as Albarn would have wished. In the meantime, I hope the album does start to grow on me.
Madeleine Peyroux – a few thoughts
I saw and heard Madeleine Peyroux for the first time on a New Year’s Eve TV special. It was live, and she appeared alongside a number of other bands from both sides of the pond. She sang a couple of songs, as did most of the performers, and as I recorded the whole show, I’ve subsequently watched it all again to get a better idea of how each performance went down with the live audience. It was also a chance for me to revise any false impressions I might have formed the first time round.
I hate to say this, but I found her extremely ordinary. Not bad, out of tune or offensive to the ears in any way, just very ordinary and very bland. It was noticeable because there were some very good performers on that night, such as Paul Weller and Sam Moore. It was particularly noticeable because there was also a relative newcomer, the British singer Amy Winehouse, also performing that night with whom a direct comparison could be made.
Peyroux seems to have been directed down the same path as Nora Jones and Katie Melua and it’s a great shame. Since the huge success of the Jones album ‘Come Away with Me’, it was inevitable that the marketing people would try to replicate sales by churning out more of the same with a different name, (but of course they never do). I fear that Madeleine has been pushed down this route because I can’t believe that this was her at anything like her best. It can’t be, it just wasn’t good enough. I certainly couldn’t hear any likeness to Billie Holliday, to whom Peyroux has been compared.
I mention Amy WInehouse; if anyone tried to turn her into a Nora Jones clone they would very quickly be told where to get off, one feels. She has an original singing style and her lyrical content is wide-ranging and contemporary though, like Peyroux, she is compared to a jazz singer, in this case Sarah Vaughan. Unlike Peyroux she was lively, the spark was still there and there was a sense of unpredictability about her performance which made it all the more enjoyable.
The point of this piece is not to damn one artist and praise another, however. I would genuinely love to see a brilliant performance by Peyroux that does justice to the reputation that I’ve heard she has. Like so many things these days, however, my instinct is that the money men are spoiling her.
Labels: madeleine peyroux, music review, rock music reviews
