Rickie Lee Jones: The Sermon
on Exposition Boulevard
Ed Note: After a spirit-deadening summer, Rickie’s latest album, from last year, is bringing me back to life.
Below is my original quick review — which while not lacking for enthusiasm no longer quite does the album justice.
Its depth is … reminiscent of T.S. Eliot. It takes a while to get there … Down the well …
And people who shuffle their Favorite Songs on an Ipod will never get there at all.
Rickie Lee Jones has a new album coming in early February. I posted this capsule review over at Amazon because the glib ne’er-do-tell who did the official thumbnail there couldn’t be bothered to listen or think. Odd they can’t find better help. The dud’s name is McLeese and he concluded by reporting “Some of this music is oddly affecting; much of it is merely odd.”
That’s alright, I know where he lives.
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BORN ANEW
Beneficiary of an advance copy of this life-hugging album, let me say (pace Mr McLeese) that THE SERMON is not “merely” anything at all. To begin: two tracks are extemporaneous meditations expounded on the spot — neither composed nor rehearsed (!?!) — and the second of these miracles, “Where I Like it Best”, now reaches me as the richest song in the collection.
(See producer Lee Cantelon’s pennyhead.com for the amazing story of how the record was born.)
It IS a departure from the studied studio perfection of her prior work. Much of the music is by younger collaborators, and the tracks were recorded with a “liveliness” that takes one back to the garage bands and stoop singers of foundational rock. “It was so different from a musical environment I would make,” she said in a recent interview, “and that helped me become something different.”
The mystic religiosity springs from mediations on the life & words of Jesus — another departure — but then again on stage she often refers to the songs of her mystical masterpiece Ghostyheads as “prayers.” Both albums are deep echoing wells, a bit spooky to slide down into (“Watch your elbows — I don’t KNOW how deep, watch you don’t burn your hands”) — but once down it’s heaven. I’ve no faith in the divinity of Jesus but these meditations, born out of the smouldering rubble-strewn spiritscape of America post 2004 elections, have been just what the flamen ordered.
There IS something happenin’ here, after all. And what it is AIN’T exactly clear. In a world gone wrong, post 2004, she found a way to sing. And perhaps it was the only way. Perhaps any other would have been false to the moment and have failed.
Maybe it’s like this (from Deep Space on The Magazine):
This tear will finally fall
Keep your eyes here
When there’s no net at all
Where the Lord’s face is like an all-night cafe
There’s a woman who will wait on
What you have to say
The equestrienne of the Circus of the Falling Star will be found not Born Again here, but born anew. Maybe there’s more to miracles than meets the eye. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for this troubadour, our companion voice these long years in the wilderness.
Hey! There’s a limited edition DVD on sale (the link above) for pennies more than the regular CD. Has video, a 5:1 surround mix, and high quality mp3 files for downloading. Plus an expanded booklet. Great package, less than $20.
GO ORDER A COPY! The release date is February 6 or similar.
euskir says:
When the art scene it’s so obscene and mediocrely filled with vanity, well, Rickie Lee Jones it’s back. Opening the doors and the windows, letting the air free, to refresh our troubled souls.
Thanks Rickie to stay in touch.
January 29th, 2007 at 1:50 pm