An Interview with Von Grey's Annika von Grey

Von Grey: (from left to right: Annika, Petra, Kathryn, and Fiona)

Establishing a style and sticking with it may work for emerging musicians looking to build a loyal following but it can prove stifling for the artists themselves. At least that’s the belief which seems to guide Atlanta’s own Von Grey, who made their debut in 2012 with a critically-hailed eponymous EP of acoustic, string-rich pop and modern folk. In fact, even as they saw the five-song set edge into the iTunes Top 10 on the strength of the vibrant lead single, “Coming For You,” and the visibility afforded by high-profile appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Conan, the group’s members—siblings Annika (violin, banjo, guitar, keys), Kathryn (cello, bass pedals, mandolin, keys), Fiona (guitar, violin, percussion), and Petra von Grey (keys, lap steel guitar, electronic percussion), each classically trained—were already plotting a new direction. 

“We played violins and cellos and stuff like that,” Annika explains, “so it was natural for us to gravitate toward more acoustic music genre-wise just because that’s where we had our foundation instrumentally.” 

For their follow-up they composed edgier, more adventurous music with electronic elements and fuller arrangements. “We have a huge range of influences sonically that we pull from,” Annika says, underscoring not only the eclecticism but also the ambition that distinguishes Awakening, Von Grey’s sophomore EP, due out January 21. “Trying to incorporate textures that are a little bit more synthetic is something that we’ve been interested in for a long time.” 

Was there any reluctance within the group about working in these new electronic textures in the sense that you risk alienating listeners who connected with the more acoustic sound on your debut?

A little bit, because I do think when some people have a first impression that can really be the foundation for every later impression. We wanted to make sure that we still sound like we’re being true to ourselves, which we are. But when we’re in the process of writing and recording and getting things to be in a solidified state, we try to make sure that the last thing we’re thinking about is how others will respond to it and more just being selfish and trying to make sure that what we’re creating is a pure and true representation of who we are as artists and what we want to express. 

Are the new sonic directions on the EP also reflective of a new or expanded knowledge of the recording studio? Is that something you all are learning to embrace as well?

We’re starting to really understand and appreciate the power of production, because it can transform a song. We go in with pretty solid ideas of what kind of parts we want to be added to it or just what kind of textures or what vibe we want the songs to embody in their finished state. We’re not at the point right now [though] where we’re completely self-producing.… We’re not completely well-versed in that side of things. It’s something that we’re definitely trying to develop so eventually maybe we can be independent in a studio environment, but right now we’re still collaborating with producers and engineers to make sure that we’re working with people that truly have a grasp and a really deep knowledge of what they’re doing in the studio. We don’t want to take chances just experimenting with things we don’t know very well. 

Is songwriting something that you all have to set time aside for, or are you always aware and receptive to ideas?

We’re always trying to make sure that we’re in a somewhat creative mode, so if we happen to in our mind hear a melody that we like we’ll be able to remember it and make sure we don’t waste ideas. Fiona and I are always thinking about songwriting, but it is something that now we usually set aside time [to do]. For us, when we have a very focused environment and we’re able to kind of be secluded, it’s when the best songs come about. We get rough, little melodic riffs and stuff when we’re just out and about, but it’s usually a pretty concentrated and focused time when we actually solidify the songs. With this EP, we wrote all those songs within a two-or-three-month period. 

As the group’s lyricist, primarily, is there any apprehension on your part about revealing too much of yourself in what you write? Is that something you run into, or is it just something you work around?

It is something I’ve become increasingly mindful about. Writing lyrics, it’s hard to do that in a way that’s very calculated. You need to make sure you’re being open in a stream-of-consciousness style, and then later you can organize those thoughts and try to figure out exactly what they’re about. Sometimes, when you find that out, it’s something you’re not eager to let everybody else know if it’s a song about something very personal, but as someone that’s writing lyrics for the band the only way that I’ll be able to emote when I’m singing—or that everybody in the band will be able to feel really attached to it—is if it’s something that is kind of genuine and that forces you to feel a little bit uncomfortable. It’s something that I’ve tried to embrace rather than run away from. 


Plus, in a part of your mind you almost have to acknowledge that if you’re writing about someone else or about your response to someone else then you may have to consider that person’s feelings if he or she recognizes themselves in your song. It can be a dicey proposition. 

I try to make sure that when I’m writing—I don’t know if I always accomplish it—I’m doing it in a way that feels human and relatable. It’s not that it’s just my own personal, selfish experience or that I’m exploiting somebody else’s emotions. It’s more taking those feelings as inspiration and trying to write in a way that is all-encompassing, because I do think it’s rare to come across an emotion that no one else has experienced before. So, trying to write about in a way that allows others to partake in the feeling is kind of the goal I try to pursue. 

To what do you attribute the group's work ethic? You all seem completely committed to the idea that whatever success comes your way is something that you have to work for. That is not always the case with people.

From a very young age we were taught that hard work is paramount to success. We started with classical music and we were home-schooled from a pretty young age, so time management was something that was a very important thing for us to learn. We practiced every day and it became something that our parents weren’t forcing us to do. We enjoyed scheduling our time, making sure we were really honing in on what we were passionate about; making sure we understood the gravity of taking something and trying to make it professional...; and making sure that we can also feel a sense of pride in what we’re doing and feel like we’re responsible for it. 

That has helped a lot, especially recently when we’d be touring and then trying to fit in songwriting time and recording things and just trying to present ourselves throughout all that in a way that seems professional…. Creating art is a big responsibility, even if it’s just a personal responsibility for yourself. We want to make sure that we’re not taking anything for granted and that we know we’re surrounded by excellence all the time, so there’s always something to aspire to as far as knowing your instrument and craft. All of those things have really helped us to stay grounded and [to] remember that you always have to work to get what you want. 

Awakening, featuring the new single, “Come On,” is scheduled for release January 21. For additional information, please visit Von Grey’s official site.

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Album Review: Sting - The Last Ship

Those who have the ability to forget that Sting was once a dynamic vocalist who wrote some ferociously good pop songs may enjoy his latest album, The Last Ship  (Cherrytree/Interscope). For everyone else, this effort, his first after a decade-long sabbatical in the classical ranks, should find it among the British legend’s most tiring and tedious. Ostensibly dealing with the decline of the shipbuilding trade during the 1980s’ in the city of Sting’s birth, Newcastle, England, The Last Ship finds Sting serving in the role of a minstrel. And in that capacity alone he does quite an admirable job, too, as he capably conjures moments of dramatic, eloquent storytelling, often enough in spoken-word passages. 

Besides, the problem with the album isn’t its script, so to speak, but rather its soundtrack. 

For the most part, Sting sings/speaks over some indiscriminate strumming—some brief orchestral flourishes also surface from time to time—the words coming across as far more considered than whatever sense of a tune carries them. Pop music (if that’s what you want to call this) may not be the right medium for telling these sorts of tales or, more to the point, Sting doesn't pull it off as he should. As demonstrated by even the most literate-intensive singer/songwriters, from Leonard Cohen to Joni Mitchell to Bob Dylan, the music must possess some engaging quality in and of itself, whether it’s a chord structure or a chorus or even just a hook. Otherwise, it’s just prose with some ambience. 

The album’s not a lost cause completely, as solipsistic love songs “The Night The Pugilist Learned How To Dance” and “I Love Her But She Loves Someone Else” evoke the sort of romantic longing that would’ve complemented The Soul Cages or Ten Summoner’s Tales. Overall, though, The Last Ship lacks the musical intrigue that could’ve made what may very well be an evocative tale into an album worth listening to.

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Album Review: Escape the Pain of Life That You Know - Madonna Makes it Fun on 'MDNA World Tour/Live 2012'

Say what you will about whatever bizarre stunts or statements she makes in a seeming effort to shock. Madonna knows how to entertain.  After 30 years, her continued ability to put asses in arena and stadium seats is all but incomparable. And while her latest studio album, MDNA, didn’t sell like some of her past blockbusters it nevertheless inspired a massively successful concert tour. In fact, the 88-date trek netted the superstar $125 million, landing her on top of the Forbes 2013 list of top-earning celebrities. 

For those who attended and those who wished they had, MDNA World Tour/Live 2012 (Live Nation/Interscope Records), which is culled from back-to-back nights (November 19 and 20) at Miami’s American Airlines Arena, suitably justifies their love. 

Madonna is as much a video star as a music one—a DVD and Blu-ray of this title is also available—and her concerts are accordingly packed with multimedia extravagance. In the context of a live album, though, certain visual elements and interludes don’t translate all that well—some interlude segments get a bit tedious—but such is a negligible criticism for the sake of continuity, which is a primary concern for just about any live recording. 

For the most part, the album is a treat. Of the MDNA songs, “Turn Up the Radio” and “I’m a Sinner” are the obvious standouts, with fervent audience sing-alongs turning them into party anthems. Older ones like “Papa Don’t Preach” and “Open Your Heart” are radically reinvented to complement the show’s overall vibe with its nearly nonstop, techno-throbbing soundtrack. This is a meticulously constructed set from start to finish; Madonna doesn’t take requests like Springsteen or stop what she’s playing on a dime to play something else like Prince. Every second of this performance is rehearsed to regimented precision, but the unflinching vitality Madonna exudes throughout—and especially on warhorses like “Express Yourself,” “Vogue,” and “Like a Prayer”—makes listening to it a whole lot of fun. 

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Amanda Mair Charms with Debut Single

Suckers for a catchy pop tune will have a hard time resisting "Sense," the beguiling lead single from 17-year-old Swedish ingénue Amanda Mair. In what sort of sounds like a cross between ELO and ABBA, she sings soft and lissome against a bouncy, head-bobbing rhythm in the verses which gives way to a lush, insatiable melody in the chorus. 

Already a rising star in her native land, Mair is set to charm North America with the release of her eponymous debut album, June 5 on Labrador Records. With "Sense" she makes a fine first impression.

Download "Sense":

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An Interview with James 'JY' Young of Styx

“I’ll be darn,” guitarist James “JY” Young says with a chuckle when told that Styx garnered praise recently from Rolling Stone, which cited the band’s current Midwest Rock ‘N’ Roll Express tour with REO Speedwagon and Ted Nugent as among “The Ten Hottest Summer Package Tours of 2012.” “That’s a turnaround for Rolling Stone in relation to us, but who am I to disagree with them?” says Young, who has been in the band from the beginning.

Truth be told, Styx have never been critical darlings, but throughout a 40-year-career that’s withstood various personnel changes and creative conflicts, the band has sold over 30 million albums and continues to draw sold-out audiences across the country.

“In these troubled times, when you’re looking for a place to go to sort of be reminded of how great it is to be alive in a country like the United States, come on out to a Styx show and leave your troubles at the door,” Young says. “We’re all gonna be surfing away with joy by the end of the night. It’s therapeutic. It’s uplifting. And it’s just a heck of a good time.”

The concert industry can be fickle and unpredictable, but Styx has maintained a steady presence and a steady success on the road.

We have definitely asserted ourselves as a live concert act…. We’re seeing more and more young people in the audience at our shows, under the age of 25, even though the internet seems like it’s killed the record business. A lot of the record executives who used to have great power no longer even have a job. And the whole thing has been turned topsy-turvy as a result of the internet and digital downloading, and the digitization of music to CDs in the very first place. Live concerts really are the only thing that you can’t digitize in a meaningful way. There’s something about the live concert experience, when you’re sitting there with 1,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 people or 50,000 people depending on the venue and they’re all singing along to the songs. There’s an energy there that no matter what kind of stereo system you have at home—5.1, this, that, and the other thing; no matter how great the Blu-ray is—it’s just not the same as being there.

You guys made your name early on with your albums—you performed live then, too, of course, but back then albums were a dominant form of expression—but now since the tide has turned to make the live performance so crucial, you guys clearly have the chops to do that too. A lot of recording artists, once they’re expected to perform live, are lost.

We made albums starting in 1972 and then started performing live [with] that music, but it was a struggle for us for a number of years. I think those years where we had to sort of sell our new music, if you will, or at least perform new music in front of people that had never heard it before [taught us] you have to have stagecraft to bring the songs to life after you’ve recorded them. We did start [out] making records, but we weren’t that successful doing it until we’d made a few. And so we had a chance to learn what not to do before we had our first great record success, so then when we did finally have record success our stage chops were finely tuned and finely honed. The way things were in the ‘70s—in the early half of the ‘70s—there was a chance to develop.

Live concerts were very exciting for the baby boom generation because rock concerts had not been that much of a factor in the ‘60s. Once the post-baby-boom generation came into their economic powers, people wanted to go out and have a good time and rock music was their music of choice. It was the music that spoke to them. And we were there for it and we had a chance to develop without the microscope on us for a while. Then when the microscope did get on us we were ready for the closer examination that we were given.

Much of this has to do with professionalism, of course, but how do you keep the material fresh—some of these songs you play are 35-40 years old now—when you perform it live today?

Each night you’re performing in front of a different audience and you see different faces out there and different reactions, and that sort of pushes you into slightly different directions each night. There is that aspect of performing the same material over and over that it tends to just get better when you do that.

In this day and age we have the ability to put on a spectacular show from the standpoint of great sound and great lights that people can do many magical things [with] that they could never do before; and a video wall behind us that can changeably do things on a regular basis to enhance the songs and create a different energy in the room. When you have all those elements they really need to be coordinated.

The woman who directs our lights every night and the guy who runs our sound and the guy who runs our monitor mix, in particular, it’s good if they know which song is coming next and what’s going to happen in the show; because then the whole production can be tighter. And, honestly, there are times when we like changing it up and do so, but in order to put on a great production that is multimedia everybody’s got to be on the same page and everybody’s got to know when there’s a dramatic stop or a dramatic start. If the timing is off on that it’s like you wasted the moment… In order to put on a great show I think that’s what you need to do. There needs to be structure and consistency.

It must be gratifying to know that Styx has made such an indelible impact not just with music fans, but in pop culture overall.

We are so embedded in pop culture it’s amazing to me the references that surface to our music. I mean, Adam Sandler certainly had a bunch of them. There’s references to our music all over the place; [in] George Clooney’s movie, the latest one he was nominated for the Academy Award for [The Ides of March], there’s one of the female characters walking around with a Styx T-shirt. These kinds of things are stuff you can’t plan for, and just kind of happen. That just shows the impact that we’ve made. I’m astounded and humbled by it.

I’m sure there are people who know Styx songs without realizing they’re even by Styx.

Some of those people from the baby boom generation, they don’t really know Styx that well; they’re not really die-hard music fans. They’ll come out to a show and say, “I knew every one of those songs you played.” They just didn’t somehow attach them to us. So that’s kind of the beauty of us continuing to perform 120 shows a year. There’s a whole audience of people out there that actually know our music and just aren’t aware that it’s us doing it. It seems kind of crazy at this late date, but everybody’s got a different agenda for their daily lives…

Music is such a universal force that has the power to calm, to soothe, to inspire, and in the best cases to heal. And it just finds its way into people’s lives in different ways, unexpected ways. That’s the beauty of us continuing to perform, which is something I love to do.

How was the ambition Styx had as an emerging band any different or similar from what the band strives for now?

For me it was just something that appeared—on the surface anyway—as a job that you didn’t really have to work at. It was a career in the avoidance of work. That’s what it meant to be a rock star: You didn’t really have to work. But the reality is to succeed and to continue to succeed over a span of a number of decades as we have requires tremendous amounts of work and utter and total focus. 

And some days it’s a very frustrating career. You have to travel from one end of the country to the other—sometimes in the span of 48 hours. I’ve gone back and forth from the East Coast to the West Coast back to the East Coast, and that will kill an ordinary human. It definitely takes its toll on you, but that’s what it takes, in a way, to continue to succeed in this business, particularly now. I don’t know what anybody else in this band could possibly think of to do at this late date as far as another career goes. Eventually this becomes the only thing that you can earn a decent living at because it’s the only thing that you really know. 

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Adele's 21 is Album of the Year

“Rolling in the Deep” changed the game. The first time you heard it you just knew that this song – that voice – was going to be a big deal. Adele is sirenic and sexy, her will-not-be-denied resolve striking a visceral blow to every self-absorbed, woe-is-me lament clogging up millions of iPods around the world.

As an album, 21 achieves much the same impact. Many of its songs have become so familiar now that they risk sounding cliché – a mere 12 months after entering the pop landscape. Yet it continues to sell like nothing else in contemporary pop, further illustrating the extent to which this music resonates with people. Popularity doesn’t equate to quality, of course; longevity will speak more to that. But it’d be churlish not to recognize that with this album Adele has tapped into the universality of heartbreak in ways that are at once intensely personal and timelessly profound.

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Album Review: The Bangles - Sweetheart of the Sun

The Bangles have never shied away from acknowledging their influences, from British Invasion bands (especially that fab lot from Liverpool) to other girls-only groups like the Runaways and the Go-Go’s. Now with their current album, Sweetheart of the Sun (Model Music Group), founding members Susanna Hoffs, Debbie Peterson, and Vicki Peterson reveal even more of their musical roots while boasting the sort of infectious hooks and harmonies that have long distinguished their sound.

Traces of psychedelic pop (“Under a Cloud,” a cover of Nazz’s acidic “Open My Eyes”) juxtapose more organic moments of country/rock (“Anna Lee,” “I’ll Never Be Through With You”), with Hoffs and Vicki Peterson each taking their fair share of the lead vocals. Twenty years after the Bangles notoriously struggled for identity as a band rather than Susanna Hoffs’ backup group, this album is perhaps their most compelling fulfillment of that ambition.

Other standouts include the saucy rocker “Ball ’n’ Chain” and a truly sizzling take on the McKinley Sisters' "Sweet and Tender Romance," both tracks brandishing ultra-frisky grooves and stinging guitars. This is good stuff; and thanks in part to co-producer Matthew Sweet–his oldies-revue collaboration with Hoffs has yielded two feel-good volumes of Under the Covers in recent years, with a third album yet to come–the Bangles have come back in a big way.

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An Interview with Edwin McCain

Believe it or not Edwin McCain has maintained a steady, fruitful career for two decades now. The Greenville, South Carolina native, perhaps most known for such pop/rock radio staples as “I’ll Be” and “I Could Not Ask For More,” has consistently turned out eclectic, soulful albums while playing countless live gigs to his appreciative, loyal audience.

McCain’s latest is Mercy Bound (429 Records), which marks the production debut of his longtime collaborator, singer/songwriter Maia Sharp. The original idea was for Sharp to co-produce the album with noted music man Don Was, but getting everyone together proved futile.

“We’ve always had this great writing relationship,” says McCain of Sharp, and so he ultimately encouraged her take the production reins completely. “It just turned into a wonderful experience,” he says. “I’m patting myself on the back for being right about Maia, how special she is.”

You've written plenty on your own, but as far as collaborating with Maia, does she change the way you approach songwriting?

She definitely changes the way I approach songwriting. I mean, I have the same ideas, but I think they’re more fully developed by the time we’re done with them, and vice versa, because the mantra is–and this is something her father taught her; her father is Randy Sharp, who’s a great songwriter as well–if you don’t develop an idea to its greatest conclusion than it’s disrespectful to another writer who would’ve; and it’s wasteful. I never really considered it in that way, but then when we started working together we would write it and then try to beat it. We’ve written it now; let’s try to write it better. Let’s do this as much as we can to refine the idea. And sometimes you find that your first thoughts are usually the right ones, but you can’t be sure unless you try.

Is there any inhibition on either one of your parts as far as what you'll write together?


There’s really nothing that she doesn’t know about me. It’s a total open-book situation. All the deepest, darkest… That’s where it lives, really.

Are you any different of a songwriter than you were 10 or 15 years ago?

I listen back to some of the [early] stuff and some of the ideas are these broad strokes of idealism. And I think that’s what you should have in your twenties. There should be some passionate idealism and some sort of poetic ignorance. Now what I do is find the beauty in the tiniest; it’s a lot more micromanaged. I find the description of a moment can be more powerful than these sort-of cry-freedom things I was talking about in the beginning, but I hadn’t really lived a whole lot. The sum total of my existence was riding around in a van, playing bars and chasing girls.

That’s produced a lot of great rock and roll, though.


It was a lot of fun. And that has produced a lot of great stuff. The challenge for me now is it’s really much more about the audience. And I think the audience that listens to what we do is like me. We’ve kind of been through that phase and now the things we pay attention to are much more empathetic.

Did having children change or inspire you in some way as a songwriter?

They inspire all of it. It’s their perspective more than anything that inspires the way I look at things. I find myself being positive and encouraging. A lot of that, when you’re alone before you’re married and even after you’re married a lot of time, it’s still all about you. You’re thinking, This traffic’s driving me crazy. It’s all about how it’s affecting me. And it’s funny, because when your kids start to think in that way it’s a clear reflection and you see how it looks. So I’ve made a real positive and committed effort to teach them how to be patient and understanding and not let the ego stuff run away with it; so they can have a better time.

Then you have to work twice as hard to live up to that example.


Absolutely. And it really does force you to put your money where your mouth is. But it’s a really good challenge because you know that if you’re sitting in the car yelling and screaming about traffic, kids pick up on all that kind of stuff. They pick up on that energy and they pick up on how you react and respond to just about everything. They’re going to do exactly what you’re going to do. So if you can react and respond in a reasonable way and have good boundaries… It’s all the things that I was never really good at before they came along. It’s amazing how hard we make things on ourselves. We make life a lot harder on ourselves than it needs to be. Just the parenting issue, it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge for time and organization and all of those things, but it really does put things into perspective. It makes me have a better outlook. It makes me happier about doing what I’m doing. When I’m going to work I know why I’m going to work. 

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Album Review: Adele - iTunes Festival London 2011

There is no substitute for talent. Nothing excites like the real deal, and Adele is all that and then some. Indeed the British songstress has captivated the masses like few other contemporary artists could hope to these days, consistently shattering music-industry records—this past week her sophomore LP 21 became the most-downloaded album ever—and with a just-released EP highlighting her recent performance at the iTunes Festival in London, she keeps right on thrilling.

“Rumour Has It” and “Rolling in the Deep” are both delivered with fresh, mischievous intensity—at times on the latter Adele hands off the vocal to an already euphoric audience, which comes through like a megachurch choir—her voice commanding its way through these tribal-thumping powerhouses.

Then with a ballad like “Take It All” she breaks your heart in half, mustering emotions so raw and with such naked vulnerability that by the end of it you feel like you’ve been run through the mill. To just piano accompaniment she breathes new life into Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” as well, with similar intimacy and conviction. This above all is why Adele resonates with so many listeners. She sounds like she feels it like she means it. And with a much-anticipated North American tour slated to start on August 9, this brief set offers a fine preview of what they can expect from her in person.

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DVD Review: Sheryl Crow - Miles From Memphis: Live at the Pantages Theatre

On her most recent studio LP to date, last year’s 100 Miles From Memphis, Sheryl Crow set out to honor classic R&B of the late ‘60s and ‘70s by composing and covering songs ostensibly in that stylistic vein. Despite a couple standout moments, however, the album just didn't live up to its potential, drawing on genre-specific clichés like horns and gospel-tinged backing vocals more than universal conviction.

Still, a rewarding live performance can transcend even the most lackluster material; and yet, for the most part, the one documented on Miles From Memphis: Live at the Pantages Theatre does not. The set begins encouragingly enough — Crow brings plenty of charisma to the stage, and her band here is outstanding — but it soon succumbs to the same stale motifs as on the album, which informs most of the show.

In fact, she spruces up older cuts in much the same dressing — “All I Wanna Do” morphs into Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up,” the curious transition leaving little to be desired; “Strong Enough” is usurped by an awkward reggae romp, with Crow at times affecting a faux-Jamaican accent — making this soul serenade seem like either a mismatched experiment of artist and genre or, worse, a contrived one.

Thankfully a stripped-down, pensive version of “Redemption Day,” an underrated highlight of the Sheryl Crow album, along with the effervescent hit, “Soak Up The Sun,” help ensure that Miles From Memphis isn't all for naught.

In the DVD’s bonus footage — a featurette that includes a two-song soundcheck along with commentary from Crow on her band and her aspirations for this particular project — she talks about why R&B and soul music has long resonated with her, and how that appreciation ultimately inspired 100 Miles From Memphis and, consequently, this concert film. She admires legends like Curtis Mayfield and Sly & The Family Stone, she explains, because within even their funkiest, most accessible songs they voiced messages of social and political relevance. “The opportunity to go out and carry on that tradition,” Crow concludes, “for me, is not just humbling but it’s really exciting.” It’s also really presumptuous, and any such assimilation does little to help her credibility in what is an all-around missed opportunity.

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Album Review: The Cars - Move Like This

The road back was never going to be a smooth one. Nearly a quarter of a century had elapsed between the recent reunion of The Cars and the band’s last studio album. Benjamin Orr, its bassist and the voice behind its biggest hit, “Drive,” succumbed to cancer in 2000. Then there was the ill-fated New Cars debacle, featuring Todd Rundgren in place of singer/rhythm guitarist Ric Ocasek, which met with dismal album sales and critical indifference.

And yet however much skepticism such factors may give to those prior to listening to Move Like This (Concord Music) is all but forgotten once its opening track, “Blue Tip,” kicks in with a sound that is at once familiar yet futuristic, boasting the sort of quirky vibe and irresistible hooks that are quintessential to the music of The Cars. With Ocasek having returned to the fold—the line-up is rounded out by all-original members Elliot Easton (lead guitar), David Robinson (drums), and Greg Hawkes (keyboards), who also handled the bass parts in deference to Orr—the band has not only recaptured the spirit they brandished on such albums as Candy-O and Heartbeat City, but has also cooked up one heck of a snap-crackle-and-popping good time. Thick, grunge-spiked riffs in cuts like “Drag On Forever” and “Keep On Knocking” scruff up the predominant slickness with a bit of dissonance in just the right spots. While the shadowy ballad, “Soon,” delivers the most stirring, poignant moment on what is an all-around outstanding album and a most-welcome return of old friends. Let the good times roll, indeed.

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An Interview with Katie Melua

“The first time I heard music that completely destroyed me,” Katie Melua recalls, “was Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ that my mum was playing on the piano when I was six years old.” It’s a memory she’s reflected upon from time to time over the years, but for her its resonance remains profound.

“It was like butterflies in my stomach,” the 26-year-old singer/songwriter describes. “It was like my heart was just dancing. It was like being totally in the moment. All I’ve ever tried to do is just to keep those feelings alive when it comes to making music.”

That sense of immediacy underscores Melua’s current album, The House. It’s her fourth studio effort since her multi-platinum 2003 debut, Call off the Search. Subsequent works, Piece By Piece and Pictures, have yielded further success for Melua, who’s sold in excess of ten million albums to date and who, in 2007, became the biggest-selling British-based female artist in the world.

With such accomplishment comes creative freedom and so for The House Melua and her longtime manager, Mike Batt, sought out renowned techno/electronica producer William Orbit, whose extensive credentials include works by, among others, U2, Madonna, and Prince.

“William is just one of the best producers out there,” Melua says in admiration. Although she knew of his background, she didn’t at first anticipate how they’d spark as a creative team, but she was admittedly intrigued by the prospect.

“I liked the fact that he was a bit of unknown to me,” she says, “in the sense [that] I didn’t really know what to expect.” After listening to a batch of demos he was sent, however, Orbit responded with praise and encouragement, much to Melua’s delight.

“He didn’t just like the sort-of up-tempo, more-pop songs,” she says. “His favorite of the demos we sent him was ‘I’d Love to Kill You,’ which is a really personal, intimate track.” Indeed, the song, which opens the album, creeps forth to a taut acoustic guitar, veiled around a suggestive, beguiling vocal.

“He also respected the organic way [of recording] instead of the more-electronic field that he tends to work in,” she adds. In fact the album doesn’t reflect any dominant sort of techno or electronica vibe nor does it signify a radical departure for Melua, but rather the progression of her artistry. Standout cuts like “Twisted” and “God on the Drums, Devil on the Bass” bear this out, introducing rich, swirling grooves and ethereal sensations.

Also among the most striking performances on The House is “The One I Love is Gone,” penned by the late bluegrass legend, Bill Monroe. Introduced to the song on a various-artist compilation given to her by a friend, Melua was so enamored of it that she performed it in concert last year.

“I really had no intentions of having any covers on this album,” she says, however, “but that song just haunts me. It’s such a great song to sing. I sometimes say that the song just tastes amazing in my mouth.”

Interpreting works of other artists is nothing new for Melua, having covered Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today,” The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” and Leonard Cohen’s “In My Secret Life,” among others, on her recordings as well as in her live performances. As far as how she engages such songs in contrast to her own compositions, however, Melua says she doesn’t apply two distinct philosophies.

“As a writer and as a creator I know that music is such a fluid thing,” she explains. “It never stays solid. So when I’ve written a song and released it, it’s then about only the person listening to it.

“On that basis, when I sing a song that I haven’t written, it’s completely mine,” she continues. “It’s got nothing to do with the writer and it’s got nothing to do with who previously recorded it.”

Of course, choosing well-written songs that lend to interpretation doesn’t hurt, but Melua maintains that ideally an artist “has no identity of her own, has no ego of her own, and is nothing but the pure moment and minute as the music is created.” In their own ways, she suggests, listeners can in turn surrender to the immediacy of the moment, in which they can appreciate some aspect of themselves within the music. Melua concurs, “You wouldn’t be attracted to the song if there wasn’t a part of you in it.”

Asked how she’s evolved as an artist in the near decade of her distinction, Melua is at turns reasoned and reflective. “On the one hand the straightforward answer is that I feel like I’ve evolved in such huge leaps and steps,” she says, “but the funny thing is, the more I grow up and kind of think about myself as an artist and think about what I’m trying to do, it’s as if everything that I learn is about complete and utter simplicity.

“On that hand,” Melua says, her thoughts returning to the memory of her first musical discovery, “you’re almost trying to keep up with what you were like as a child.”

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An Interview with Nick Seymour of Crowded House

With the release of their latest LP, Intriguer, Crowded House have, in a sense, come full circle. The album, which hit North American retail and online outlets earlier this week—it was issued elsewhere around the world last month—finds the Australian-based quartet drawing on many of the characteristic qualities that distinguished them over two decades ago.

Led by vocalist and principal songwriter/guitarist Neil Finn, Crowded House generated both critical praise and immense popular success beginning with their eponymous 1985 debut, ultimately scoring such hit singles as "Don't Dream It's Over," "Something So Strong," and "Better Be Home Soon," among many others. By the mid-nineties, though, Finn wished to pursue other endeavors and, in so doing, broke up the band. It wasn't until 2006, following the suicide of drummer and founding member Paul Hester the year before, that Crowded House reemerged with Time On Earth, which began as a Neil Finn solo project to which the remaining members later contributed.

Intriguer is more a concerted effort of the band—who along with Finn includes keyboardist/guitarist Mark Hart, drummer Matt Sherrod, and bassist Nick Seymour—and its melody-rich arrangements, coupled with Finn's compelling lyricism, recall quintessential Crowded House.

The new album’s release inadvertently coincided with the start of the band's North American tour, a daunting scenario for any established act not wanting to overwhelm audiences with a lot of unfamiliar material though, at the same time, maintaining a desire to perform their latest work. "Playing live has to be a challenge," Seymour contends, underscoring the point that nothing about a Crowded House concert is particularly set in stone anyway. "The setlist changes most nights. There’s a stable of, say, six songs that we always include in a set, but we can play for two hours—that’s usually the length of a show—and it takes many turns. I think audiences are set to expect that."

How has the dynamic in the band, now with Matt on drums, changed from the days of, say, Temple of Low Men? Has your approached evolved any or is it similar to how it was back then?

The approach to rendering the music, to finding an arrangement, is pretty much the same. We do takes and we try not to make any mistakes and we try to perform the song from start to finish as best we can. And then [we] scrutinize the takes: “Take three was better than take one.” That has stayed the same. We record to tape, still. We shift tempos according to how Neil feels singing the song. Most of those things are fairly traditional. And that hasn’t changed since Temple of Low Men. That’s a mode we can’t really corrupt or change. Because the minute we try to get the drums separate from the vocal the integrity of the way that the song sings is self-conscious. It’s suddenly challenged and it doesn’t sound right.

Matt is a very different kind of drummer from Paul in a lot of ways, but there are so many similar aspects to their upbringing, which is really extraordinary. I was amazed at the hybrid of music that they grew up with that were similar. They’re similar in some respects and then wildly different in others… When we met Matt, we weren’t trying to replace Paul Hester. We hadn’t been together as a band for some time. We were just trying to meet a drummer that we could instinctively go to and chase [an] abstract enjoyment of jamming. He’s not a particularly great brushes player like Paul was, but he’s an incredible polyrhythm-type player. We’re really lucky we met Matt, that’s for sure.

What does Intriguer, as an album title, mean or intend to suggest?

“The Intriguer” was an actual song at one point. It comes from a night when Neil was out having a drink with a very well-known cartoonist/satirist in Australia, Michael Leunig. Neil and he are friends; they’ve worked together on a couple of projects in the past. They were out having a drink. [It was like] when the conversation just sort of stops and you’re looking around in the bar or just watching out the window; you’re not talking very much, but you’re seeing these little random asides taking place in the city. The story is that whenever there was an alarm or a crash or some kind of accident—a moment in the restaurant or whatever that's drawn attention—Neil has observed a guy standing in a window nearby and Michael’s observed the same person. And they ended up having this abstract conversation about there is governance over dysfunction, [that] this intriguing character oversees these random events just to keep humans on their toes. This dark figure became known as The Intriguer. Neil wrote a song about it and, as it turned out, the song didn’t turn out as well as we thought or capture it as well as the idea of the specter of The Intriguer [being] a great umbrella essence of the new record.

There's a minimalist, organic, almost-meditative quality to the new music. It's a consistent vibe. Was that something you set out to achieve?

I wouldn’t say that we ever have a criteria for how we go about capturing the time in the studio, the energy in the studio. But often there will be an atmosphere that falls into place [of which] we tend to recognize its merit and really grasp at happy accidents that occur. The pressure in the studio of all being in the right place at the right time together is such that you’d almost be sabotaging that potential by having a criteria or a manifesto... It’s just a certain magic that will occur at the time and then make sense after the fact. It is very intuitive and very instinctive. If there is some kind of consistent atmosphere going on from one song to the next, it’s really as a result of possibly the season, what we were eating, the sense of camaraderie and bonhomie, the stories that were being told at the time. Often as not, when I try to piece together an illustration that is to be the cover of the CD, I have to consider all of these elements and try to come up with something that is an inherent juxtaposition to how we were feeling in the studio at the time. It’s incredibly hard, but it makes perfect sense once it’s done.

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Album Review: Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed

If Miley Cyrus wants her music to be more important to people than what's depicted of her in tabloids and paparazzi photos, she needs to distinguish herself from the countless other pop stars who already do what she does, only better. On her new album, Can’t Be Tamed, the seventeen-year-old starlet not only lacks any hint of individuality but substance as well, sounding as if she's grasping at straws with each track to find one groove, one hook, one something that works. And not much does.

These are just, in the most generic sense possible, tracks to fill the space of an album. And from the monotonous opener, “Liberty Walk,” it slogs through one formulaic, overbearing dance beat after another. Added to that is Cyrus’ singing, which when left alone would likely reveal some potential with its deep tone, yet here too often dissolves into processed, robotic distortion. That there is actually a track called “Robot” doesn’t make such production tricks any more reasonable. Other moments, like the she’s-too-young-to-get-it cover of Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and the stale plea of “Stay” — featuring such trite lyrics as, “I love you more/Than I did before” — follow the same uninspired pattern.

While she's no doubt earned an impressive and sizable following through her lead role in Disney’s Hannah Montana franchise, as a recording artist in her own right, Miley Cyrus has yet to find her own voice, let alone one that can speak to (or for) others. And though the album isn't completely without merit — the last track, “My Heart Beats For Love,” is a refreshing, catchy tune — she’s not doing anything on Can’t Be Tamed that any other teenager with modest talent and comparable resources couldn’t just as well pull off.

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Album Review: Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea

“This album, like everything I do, is made to try and impress Jason Bruce Rae.” Such is what British songstress Corinne Bailey Rae pens in dedication to her late husband in the liner notes of her current work, The Sea, underscoring how much its songs are shaped by circumstances that made her a widow before she turned thirty.

As she first exhibited on her eponymous debut in 2006, Bailey Rae naturally betrays a certain amount of pathos and fragility in her voice. On The Sea, she now resonates with those qualities all the more. Still throughout, she does so with serenity and resilience, never coming across as dour or self-pitying.

To the contrary, she is enchanting and at times zestful, personifying the latter especially well on “Paris Nights/New York Mornings” and “Paper Dolls,” both cuts benefiting from rich, irresistible grooves. The same can be said (and then some) for “Feels Like The First Time,” during which she echoes Marvin Gaye’s spiraling, layered arrangements on I Want You, rivaling its musical sophistication while asserting her own sensuous semblance of soul. 

Alas, she is at her most resonant when she slows the music down as if retreating to her innermost reflections, summoning moments of breathtaking poignancy from the grief of her experience. “So young for death/We walk in shoes too big,” she sings on “I Would Like To Call it Beauty,” almost trembling in a whisper above a subtle, acoustic guitar. It takes no small amount of courage to confront such mournful, mortal concerns—some people never come to terms at all with the loss they’ve endured in their lives—and by no means does Corinne Bailey Rae come across as if she's overcome her own. Yet in expressing her sorrow with such honesty and grace, she’s rendered an exquisite album that ultimately transcends its subtext to inspire solace.

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Album Review: Barry Manilow - The Greatest Songs of the Seventies

After putting out two collections featuring music from the fifties and sixties, respectively, Barry Manilow now interprets songs from the decade that coincides with the peak of his own success on The Greatest Songs of the Seventies.

This compilation should appeal to his loyal fanbase regardless but, despite that, the album works because Manilow decided to cover songs that assimilate stylistically well with the music he produced during the same era. Logically, those who enjoy the sounds of the Carpenters, Christopher Cross, and Bread from the 1970s most likely enjoy the music of Barry Manilow as well. It’s not as if he’s covering Black Sabbath, AC/DC, or Led Zeppelin here.

Moreover, the hallmarks of Manilow’s music, with its sophisticated production, pristine vocals, and affective flair for melodrama, all work their way onto this album. For instance, “If” features a more sweeping string arrangement than the already-lush original version without losing any of the song’s idealistic charm. As well, “The Long And Winding Road” resembles the Phil Spector production on Let It Be, which might make Paul McCartney cringe, but those who appreciate Barry Manilow’s gift for turning schmaltzy music into an emotional wellspring will love it.

By and large, the songs on this album stay quite close to their original arrangements, yet Manilow capably offers moving vocal performances, making a good number of them worthy interpretations. “My Eyes Adored You” and “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” exemplify this point.

The track that benefits most from Manilow’s near-faithful renditions, though, is “(They Long To Be) Close To You,” which suggests Burt Bacharach’s precise instrumentation while evoking the optimism of Karen Carpenter’s seminal vocal performance.

However, where Manilow excels in the intricacies of the previous song, he falls short with the same approach on “Sailing”. In its first incarnation, Christopher Cross sang the lyrics in near imperceptible tones, wispy like the music, ultimately creating the very atmosphere the song described. In Manilow’s rendition, each syllable is enunciated and prominent in the mix, which kills the mood that this song could so pleasantly capture.

Another misstep comes on “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which is one of those classics that, unless an artist approaches it with a sensibility that’s divergent from the original version (like Aretha Franklin’s gospel rendition, for example), it’s best not to tackle it at all. Manilow certainly does an acceptable job, but it’s not extraordinary. It should be, though, because this is an extraordinary song.

Following the album proper, six acoustic performances comprising some of Manilow’s most recognizable seventies songs convey the merit and the emotional impact of his songwriting during that decade. While “Copacabana” fails to thrive in this context, the five piano ballads that round out this portion, especially “Weekend In New England” and “Looks Like We Made It,” sound exquisite.

Overall, The Greatest Songs of the Seventies is of sufficient quality to make the album worthwhile. Barry Manilow neither strays far from the original versions of these songs nor from the type of music his fans have come to expect and appreciate, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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Album Review: Bon Jovi - Lost Highway

The Nashville establishment can rest easy. A veteran rock band from New Jersey is not taking over the honky tonks of Music Row.

Bon Jovi’s latest album, Lost Highway, features songs with straightforward, narrative lyrics and acoustic-heavy arrangements, but such traits signal a concentrated focus on songwriting, not an opportunistic shift in genre.

Considering the crossover-to-country success of their last major hit, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” Bon Jovi could have very well followed it up with an album's worth of overt country songs. Instead, the band crafted a set of solid material by simply telling good stories. Songs about taking chances (“One Step Closer”), wishful thinking (“Seat Next To You”), and lost causes (“Whole Lot of Leavin’”) come across as authentic and inspired.

While the album sounds vital and new for the most part, certain Bon Jovi motifs and tricks seem recycled from previous works. The first single, “(You Want To) Make A Memory,” covers much of the same ground, musically and thematically, as “Bed of Roses.” And “We Got It Going On” features the familiar talkbox as heard on “It’s My Life” and “Livin’ On A Prayer.” However, it’s hard to fault a band as successful as Bon Jovi for borrowing from their own greatest hits.

Some of the songs on Lost Highway will sound better in concert. Most of them will sound terrific in a car. The most rewarding aspect of the album, though, is its believability. And selling a good song (or twelve of them) is by no means exclusive to country music. 

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