Sugarland:
Love On The Inside
Love On The Inside
Allmusic.com Review by Thom Jurek...
Georgia's chart-topping contemporary country-rock act Sugarland hit pay dirt on their first two albums — their Twice the Speed of Life debut and sophomore Enjoy the Ride sold over two million copies apiece. The duo of Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles initially had their roots in the Georgia alt-rock scene and connected with the more rockist sounds of 21st century country. Scoring hit single and after hit single, the songwriting duo became a top-selling concert draw, but in the pressure and hustle Bush and Nettles became somewhat unsatisfied with their writing and recording processes. For Love on the Inside, they flexed some hard-won industry muscle and successfully lobbied Mercury to let them co-produce their own record (with Byron Gallimore) and record in Georgia instead of Music City. The result is the most organic of Sugarland's three albums. Cut live from the floor, Bush and Nettles' vocals were tracked in the midst of a band playing around them with few overdubs. Repeated takes yielded performance-quality vocals and very natural-sounding guitars, B-3s, mandolins, pianos, and drums (from Matt Chamberlain no less). The songs here are entire levels above anything they've written. Love on the Inside is an album-length reflection on love in its many forms — from new love to grief, betrayal, regret, loss, and rediscovery. There's plenty of the personal in this set — Nettles went through a divorce during its creation (check "It Happens," "Keep You," and "Take Me as I Am").
The set hinges on the three songs at its heart: first is the innocent yet feverish first flush of new love on "We Run." Played mostly on acoustic instruments, it celebrates the birth of love as beginning and end in itself. There's the obsession and lump-in-your-throat heat that this is it. It is followed by "Joey," a song about a lost love that's too late to resurrect — the bereft and abandoned and once Beloved is no longer on the planet. The emotion in Nettles' voice — especially as it is buoyed by Bush's in the refrain and the wide-open ringing guitars and mandolins — is devastating. The trilogy ends with the magnificently poetic "Love." It commences with acoustic and electric guitars and Nettles asking questions as to the nature of our most mysterious emotion. Her lyrics are transcendent, profound. With a guitar riff worthy of U2 at their most anthemic, she asks, "Is it the one you call home?/Is it the Holy Land?/Is it standing right here, holding your hand...?/I say it's Love." When Bush enters with his deepest growl to underscore her every line, you'd have to have sawdust for blood not to be deeply, authentically moved. It seems to say, no matter whatever else it is, love is redemption. "Genevieve" is a romantic country gospel tune reminiscent of "Long Black Veil." There is also humor in the sideways tribute "Steve Earle," with its tongue firmly in cheek but devoid of simple novelty — Nettles' smile has a trace of the shadow as well. While this set is saturated with hunger and ambition, it's also confident and sophisticated — the album sounds as if they meant every word but had a great time making it. They prove they were always meant to be a live act whether in the studio or on a concert stage. More...
Chrisette Michele:
Epiphany
Epiphany
Allmusic.com Biography by Cyril Cordor...
In a very short span of time, R&B singer/songwriter Chrisette Michele shot from small-time performer up to one of Def Jam's most promising talents, purely based on her unique instrument — a gorgeous and effortlessly versatile singing voice colored with Billie Holiday-esque inflections of vocal pop and jazz. The jazz-influenced vocalist, born Chrisette Michele Payne in 1982, developed her pipes through singing gospel, first performing for a congregation at age four. God and music were clearly instrumental in her upbringing: her father, who also played the organ, was a deacon, and her mother was the church's choir director. Growing up in Patchogue, NY, a small town on Long Island, the young singer's parents always kept her busy with tap dancing, piano lessons, choir rehearsals, and the like. But at age 17, Michele had an epiphany. After a teacher gave her a CD containing the bossa nova standard "The Girl from Ipanema," she was immediately won over to jazz by Brazilian jazz singer Astrud Gilberto's voice. She spent endless hours isolated in a room with a piano learning jazz standards as they were sung by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and other greats. She wound up studying vocal and jazz performance at Five Townes College on Long Island.When she began doing gigs at local venues, it was mainly for small audiences at open mics or for auditions. However, shortly thereafter neo-soul singer India.Arie, who spotted her at Manhattan's Village Underground club, enlisted Michele to be her opening act, as did Kem and Angie Stone. And at that same club, she was also discovered by representatives of Def Jam, who were enamored with her vocal abilities and had her signed to the label by 2006. At the end of the year, Def Jam brought her out in full force, allowing her to write and sing the hooks for Jay-Z's "Lost Ones" and Nas' Nat King Cole-inspired "Can't Forget About You." Her album debut, I Am, followed in summer 2007. Adding to the album's influences of gospel, adult alternative pop, and hip-hop, she wrote all the songs herself and worked closely with artists/producers Babyface, Salaam Remi, John Legend, and will.i.am.
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Keith Urban:
Defying Gravity
Defying Gravity
Allmusic.com Review by Thom Jurek...
Keith Urban's fourth album, Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, was released literally days after he entered an alcohol treatment center to treat his disease. The album was issued, debuted in the top spot in the Billboard country charts, scored four hit singles, and eventually went double platinum. What's so remarkable about this is that Urban's rehabilitation regimen didn't allow him to tour for months after the disc's release, potentially hurting sales. It didn't happen. Urban's now trademark meld of country, pop, and rock & roll connects deeply with fans and they are nothing if not loyal. Defying Gravity is his fifth studio release, and in many ways it simultaneously builds on its predecessor while standing apart from it completely. Certainly, there are similarities in sound and approach: Urban once again worked with Dan Huff to co-produce the set, and his now signature manner of layering everything from strings and drum machines to taut, sheeny electric guitars playing power chords, banjos, pedal steel, and crunchy, crisp drums is a sound that belongs to him alone. The other is that this album is unapologetically one of redemption tomes colored as love songs in various shades and tempos — though none of them are heartbreak songs. He co-wrote eight of Defying Gravity's 11 songs, and arranged all of them.
That said, this time out Capitol throws everything into the ring by issuing a pair of leadoff singles in the tight little rocker "Kiss a Girl" and the shimmering, reverb-laden guitar workout "Sweet Thing," which is disguised as a midtempo power ballad. Both are 21st century equivalents of rock & roll love songs that echo everyone from Tom Petty to Greg Kihn and even Dwight Twilley — though this is clearly not conscious. As radio tracks, they are smart picks, especially with the clever guitar and banjo interplay — Urban has transformed the role of the backwoods and in-the-hills instrument into a respectable part of the rock & roll toolbox. There are some proper ballads on the disc as well, such as the haunting, nocturnal, and dreamily textured "The Summer Comes Around," his nakedly emotional paean to wife Nicole Kidman ("Thank You") that closes the set, and the shuffling "Only You Can Love Me This Way." The skittering drum loop that undergirds the guitar and Rolling Stones-esque "doo-doo" chorus in "I'm In" makes it an excellent choice for a fourth single, and the clipped pedal steel, distorted electric guitars careening in the bridge, and shuffling hi-hat and snare make the finger-popping "Why It Feels So Long" feel like a contemporary country take on of one of Bruce Springsteen's boulevard songs, or John Mellencamp's "Cherry Bomb." In sum, Defying Gravity builds on the skill set that gave listeners Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing and takes it further, seamlessly combining hook-laden crafty songwriting with a pop sensibility in the modern country vernacular that blazes a new trail and underscores Duke Ellington's dictum that there are only two kinds of music: good and bad. This is a shining case in point for the former.
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Untitled Document
Ciara:
Fantasy Ride
Fantasy Ride
Allmusic.com Review by Andy Kellman...
The final version of Ciara's third album, issued after several months of delay, is quite dissimilar from the one detailed in an August 2008 Billboard cover story. According to the article, Fantasy Ride was to be divided into three sections tentatively titled "Groove City," "Crunk Town," and "Kingdom of Dance." At some point between then and the album's May 2009 release, this concept was mercifully scrapped, quite possibly because the track list underwent some changes. Regardless, it would not be difficult to construct an imaginary three-part Fantasy Ride from the finished product, with each song easy to slot into one of the designations. Had Ciara stuck with the city/town/kingdom concept, "Groove City" would have been the most populous and happening of the three. A couple of these ballads and slow jams are up there with the highlights from Goodies and The Evolution — no coincidence that both were written and produced by the-Dream and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart (Rihanna's "Umbrella," Beyoncé's "Single Ladies"), the Jam and Lewis or Neptunes of their time. On the hypnotically winding "Like a Surgeon" (not a cover of Weird Al's Madonna parody), the-Dream provides some of his best, gimmicky, post-R. Kelly similes and metaphors, delivered by Ciara with all the necessary arrogance: "I appreciate your recovery time, but you need a physical one more time." "Keep Dancin' on Me," its opposite in sentiment, is as resigned and alluring as the-Dream's own "Fancy," swapping dejection for a kind of blissful yearning. Blink and you will miss what was to be "Crunk Town": "High Price" is a decent "Oh" revamp, with booming, low-end, creature-feature synths and Ludacris all part of the mix, though Ciara's outlandish operatics are a new (and nice) touch. The five uptempo tracks that would have been "Kingdom of Dance" are uneven, exemplified by the hobbling flop that is "Love Sex Magic," an easily forgettable Justin Timberlake collaboration, and "Work," an over-stuffed dancefloor mess that does not benefit from Missy Elliott's hoarse hectoring. Even if Ciara imaginatively develops the "Super C" superhero introduced in the disc's booklet, she and her collaborators will have to work extra hard on the next album to ensure that she does not stall in a creative cul de sac. More...
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