精華區beta Madonna 關於我們 聯絡資訊
看到女王的妹夫的專輯高掛在 Wall Of Sound 年終前 25 名的第四名, 所以來轉貼一下 Joe Henry Fuse Label: Mammoth File Under: Lighting up his life Rating: 85 During the past 13 years, Joe Henry has quietly been one of America's boldest a nd most accomplished songwriters, a guy with a knack for drawing detailed chara cters and then putting the listeners in their heads — aural virtual reality, i f you will. He's been equally adventurous as a composer, too, stepping from the straightforward singer-songwriter path of his earliest work to the country tin ges of his early '90s efforts to the amped-up noise of his last album, 1996's T rampoline. The news hook may be that Henry is Madonna's brother-in-law, but the real news has always been his fearless artistic acuity. And that's amply intact on his seventh release, Fuse, which signals another dar ing new direction — this one kind of midnight noir, a non-electronic ambience that's marked by touches of jazz, blues, and traditional pop. Henry dubs this h ypnotic brew "the rapture of song and story" in Fuse's hushed, rhythmic opener "Monkey," and that's an apt appraisal of the 10 songs that follow. Gentle, jazz y guitar chords push the title track along, while spectral vocal snippets and r inging electric piano breaks give "Fat" a macabre quality. "Skin and Teeth" is the album's pop hit, with a sturdy melody that sounds like a Cure song and a ch orus bolstered by guest vocals by Jakob Dylan (whose bandmate, keyboardist Rami Jaffee, also helps on the album). With its (sampled) muted trumpet, "Want Too Much" combines John Barryish drama with the soulful elegance of early '70s Marv in Gaye, while a jagged guitar solo provides an electrifying jolt to "Like She Was a Hammer." Lyrically, Fuse is Henry's love suite, with the arrangements leaving plenty of room for him to sing as he delivers an emotionally broad treatise about obsessi on ("Want Too Much," "Skin and Teeth"), fear ("Great Lake"), loss ("We'll Meet Again"), and desperation — unless the offer to babysit a wayward lover's monke y is altruistic, which is unlikely in the context of these songs. But the real magic of the album is the way Henry keeps the tension at just the right dynamic level; Fuse burns but it never blows, maintaining a gripping prettiness that never wears thin. — Gary Graff -- ※ Origin: 交大機械站 ◆ From: 192.192.50.113 --