|
Nellie McKay's first album of new material in three years returns her to the stylistically scattershot, lyrically ingenious nature of Obligatory Villagers. As she admits herself ("I have no idea how this album happened"), McKay is working on instinct, which helps preserve not only her many idiosyncrasies but also the charming and witty nature of her songwriting. Byrne's help is intriguing, since the album has all the sounds of the post-millennial global village: reggae rhythms and vocal inflections for several tracks (including "Caribbean Time"), a New Yorker's version of Latin-ized tradition for "¡Bodega!," and, as before, plenty of the good-time, slightly New Orleans-influenced jazz she's floated in the past. The album also has slightly more guitar than any since her debut. While her mood inevitably varies from track to track, McKay, more often than before, sounds as though circa-2000s malaise has infected her songwriting; the opener, "Bruise on the Sky," is especially dark (its chorus ends "What I hoped would be my rainbow, was just a bruise on the sky"). "Beneath the Underdog" and "No Equality" are equally dispirited, nearly fatalistic, despite the latter's airing as an organ-led soul jam.
Condition:NEW.
TRACK LISTINGS
1 Bruise On the Sky 4:31
2 Adios 2:13
3 Caribbean Time 4:18
4 Please 3:10
5 Beneath the Underdog 4:59
6 Dispossessed 3:53
7 The Portal 3:53
8 ¡Bodega! 3:39
9 Consada Blues 4:32
10 No Equality 4:38
11 Absolute Elsewhere 3:50
12 Unknown Reggae 4:32
13 Bluebird 3:10
|