Griffin House: Lost & Found

In recent history, two albums have found their way onto my truly elitist "Desert Island Records" list. Joe Strummer's Streetcore, and this album, Griffin House's Lost & Found.

And, yes, it *is* that good.

Remember, "Along time ago in a blog entry far, far away," I was praising Glen Phillips work while noticeably ignoring Kim Richey and Griffin House? Yeah, I'm still sorry for that. And that's not an offense against Glen.

Griffin House masterfully crafts beautiful, realistic, emotional songs, all wrapped in his acoustic guitar and bundled up in his wonderful voice.

Does it sound like I'm tripping over myself to give this guy praise? Well, it should. I honestly feel he's that good, and after having seen him solo and live recently, my feelings were completely confirmed.

Any way, the album. 11 tracks, just shy of an hour. 100% wonderful. Sorry, there I go again.

Outside of saying "the whole album," some excellent tracks include "Ah Me" (even if it deals with a crumbling relationship, it's musically brilliant), "Waterfall" (which has found some commercial success, no pun intended, for oral-b), "The Way I Was Made" (a pride-inducing tune which traces his origins back to his grandparents), and "New Day" (which just slowly builds to this beautiful, optimistic ending).

In the end: I could trip over myself for another hour and a half singing this guy's praise, but I'll just leave it at "I think most anyone would, could, and should enjoy this album. On repeat."

On the web: There are a few shows of the Weekly Review Traveling Roadshow (House, Richey, Phillips) on archive.org. This one is the best of them.

Also available are photos from his concert at Harpers Ferry, in Allston, Ma. on my website: Griffin House photos @ AdamSalsman[dot]com.

Technorati Tagged: Griffin House | Acoustic | Desert Island Album | 2004

Patti Smith: Twelve

And then there is the other side of an album of covers. Patti Smith's "Twelve." Yes, the "Twelve" refers to the number of tracks.

From Jimi Hendrix to Tears for Fears, Nirvana to the Allman Brothers, Smith manages to at least break even, if not come up a little bit ahead by the time of the album.

When doing a cover (just one or a whole album), you have to take in to account how the fans will respond. If you end up just doing an uninspired, flat out cover (see: Bryan Ferry's "Dylaneseque") you could alienate the fan-base. If you do too much experimentation and alteration, you may be heralded for creative, but again shunned for destroying a "classic."

Smith plays it safe. There's not a lot of stretching the musical boundaries (except for the banjo in "Smells Like Teen Spirit;" It works!), but she does some faithful work to bring her back to the front of pop culture.

Where I feel "Are You Experienced?" failed a bit in Smith's hands, she manages an even-keeled "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." "Gimme Shelter" is belted out with some serious force to give Mick a run for his money, but Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" feels a bit awkward.

Where she does things so very right is the Beatles' "Within you without you," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and the Allman's "Midnight Rider."

In the end: Again, this is the good side of a cover album. It feels like Patti Smith took special care in picking these songs and worked them up to play nicely with her voice. Like I said, it's no world-shattering re-imagination, but it's 12 songs from the pop-vernacular performed for us with Smith's unique vocal strains. Worth at least a once-through.

Technorati Tagged: Patti Smith | Cover Album | Rock | 2007

Bryan Ferry: Dylanesque

Bryan Ferry covers Bob Dylan. It'd at least be an interesting match up, right? One would think.

Yeah, not so much.

The entire process seemed uninspired, unimpressive, and downright insulting to Bobby Dylan's work.

The problem may stem from having absolutely no attachment to Bryan Ferry or any of his work, my complete dislike of his voice, or just that these all seem to be bland interpretations of some major and minor Dylan tunes.

And, to be honest, I didn't think anyone could screw up "Watchtower." The song has been covered, altered, re-imagined, had the re-imagining become the definitive version, covered, altered, and replayed so many times. I don't think you can be a band without covering "All Along the Watchtower." Hell, even Battlestar Galactica did.

Yet, here is Bryan Ferry, shoving this pitifully lame, soulless version of a Dylan uber-classic.

In the end: The whole thing feels awkward and clumsy like a 15 year old unhooking his girlfriend's bra for the first time. There are good cover albums out there, there are bad cover albums out there, and then there's this one. Please, do us all a favour and pick up Patti Smith's "Twelve." At least she tried to mix things up a little bit.

Technorati Tagged: Bryan Ferry | Cover Album | Rock | 2007