BONNIE RAITT: SOULS ALIKE (2005)
1) I Will Not Be Broken; 2)
God Was In The Water; 3) Love On One Condition; 4) So Close; 5) Trinkets; 6)
Crooked Crown; 7) Unnecessarily Mercenary; 8) I Don't Want Anything To Change;
9) Deep Water; 10) Two Lights In The Nighttime; 11) The Bed I Made.
There's a little less tepid funk and wishy-washy adult contemporary on Souls Alike than on Silver Lining — and a little bit more
blues and jazz; consequently, it marks a (at least temporary) return to Dullsville
from Offensivetown. There might even be a small handful of relatively decent
songs for those who normally despise all forms of «soft rock». The problem is,
2005 is not the kind of year where anybody could have a «change of heart»
concerning anything that might be
done by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, and a detailed discussion of any such album
could only be of interest to hardcore fans with a penchant for distinguishing
between the «fifty shades of grey».
Not addressing
that category, we shall keep it very brief here. Randall Bramblett's ʽGod Was
In The Waterʼ is a pretty good song — dark, unsettling country-blues, well
adorned here with bitterly, but rather unsentimentally weeping organs,
wah-wahs, and swampy slides, and even the lyrics are good, finding a fresh
angle for the old perspective: "God was in the water that day... / Castin'
out a line to the darkness / Castin' out a line but no one's biting". And
Bonnie's bitterish vocal tone is practically perfect for this particular
setting.
Emory Joseph's
ʽTrinketsʼ is another standout: introspective nostalgia without the obligatory
sappiness, sort of a «talking blues» (at times, coming close to «rapping
blues») with a bit of musical muscle, not particularly catchy, but each of Bonnie's
bitter dry "when I was a kid..." verses has a whiff of intrigue. I
mean, with a little bit of imagination you could see Lou Reed doing a song like
this, and it's a rare Bonnie Raitt song that allows you to cast such a
projection. Nicely fluent piano and slide dialog in the outro, too.
Finally, there is Jon
Cleary's ʽUnnecessarily Mercenaryʼ, a sly, but big-hearted New Orleanian romp
that could actually benefit from a brass section — but the well-worded chorus
remains memorable even without any extra support. Cleary himself plays the
piano solo, and he pretty much owns the song (as well as any other song here
where he is prominent enough), being a well schooled disciple of the Professor
Longhair / Dr. John school of Mardi Gras Keyboards. As usual, just a tad more
energy and wildness couldn't have hurt, but it's still fun.
The rest is hardly
worth a mention — blues and ballads, gently rippling through the air without
generating much excitement. The trip-hop beats on ʽDeep Waterʼ are an
intentional «modernistic» nod that fails for that exact reason (do it because
it's good, not because it's a special
gesture that puts a chronological seal on the album). The final number, ʽThe
Bed I Madeʼ, is a moody jazz ballad written by David Batteau where Bonnie tries
to be Madeleine Peyroux, but she doesn't have the voice or the knack for it —
so at least there's more going on
here than on ʽWounded Heartʼ, but it is still a very (appropriately) sleepy
conclusion for an overall sleepy album. So just borrow ʽGod Was In The Waterʼ
for your «Contemporary Roots-Rock Nuggets» compilation and ʽUnnecessarily
Mercenaryʼ for your «New Orleans Lives!» compilation and feel free to forget
the rest if you feel like forgetting the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment