From: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org (jinglejangle-digest) To: jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Subject: jinglejangle-digest V5 #76 Reply-To: jinglejangle@smoe.org Sender: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jinglejangle-digest Wednesday, July 17 2002 Volume 05 : Number 076 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [MLL] Bitch review of Live City Sounds [Rachel Kramer Bussel Subject: [MLL] Bitch review of Live City Sounds from Issue 17 of Bitch: You've gotta hand it to kewpie-voiced, bewigged Mary Lou Lord. Anyone who has the moxie to busk in a subway station--risking harassment, garbage projectiles, and airborne viruses for hour after noisy hour--even when she's had a measure of major-label success is worth a listen. After the slick, overproduced 1998 release Got No Shadow, I was a little worried that Lord's simple, folky style would be forever subsumed in multitracked vocals and flashy guitar breaks. But Live City Sounds finds Lord back where she started--on the subterranean stage of a Boston T station, working her guitar and her expansive repertoire of cover tunes. Lord has always been more of a scavenger than a songwriter, adopting everything from venereable rock classics to obscure-to-most-of-us folk nuggets and giving them a second life without tarnishing the dignity of the originals. On Sounds, she distills the anthemic roar of Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" down to its sparest parts, mellows out the Magnetic Fields' arch "I Don't Want to Get Over You," and channels high-school wistfulness for Bit Star's "13," in addition to turning in faithful renditions of tunes by Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson, and Daniel Johnston. The sound quality of the recordings is almost confusingly good (if all subway stations were quieter than my living room, I suppose I'd want to hang out in one, too), though the occasional bit of bystander applause or muffled rattle of a passing train are nice touches. The intimacy of this set will reward anyone looking to be impressed by all that one girl and a guitar can still do. -- B. Helen Carnhoops - -- Rachel Kramer Bussel rachelkb@earthlink.net http://www.rachelkramerbussel.com ------------------------------ End of jinglejangle-digest V5 #76 *********************************