The Boy In The Bubble - 3
Graceland - 3
I Know What I Know - 3
Gumboots - 3
Diamonds In The Soles Of Her Shoes - 3
You Can Call Me Al - 4
Under African Skies - 3
Homeless - 4
Crazy Love, Vol. II - 3
That Was Your Mother - 3
All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints - 3
Total - 35 stars / 11 tracks = 3.18 stars
We'll start with the two tracks I quite liked. "You Can Call me Al" is a catchy, infectious ditty, with a quick, clever wit to its verses. "Homeless" is a richly harmonied song with the kinds of African flavours that probably have some kind of cultural significance, but I just like the sound of.
The rest of the album cycles through the kinds of songs that I didn't love when Simon & Garfunkel did them. Often, they are hookless ballads that rely on choruses that don't live up to what Simon has shown to be capable of. "I Know What I Know," for instance, could have been great, but is repetitive and unevolving. I think my time will be better spent listening to some old S&G albums.
I love this album. I think a big part of that is because I grew up on -- my parents had it playing in the car all the time.
ReplyDeleteI find your comments regarding 'Homeless' to be kind of, troubling.
"the kinds of African flavours that probably have some kind of cultural significance, but are still aesthetically pleasing to a North American audience."
I'm not really sure how to take that, or maybe it came out different then you intended, or what. It sorta seems to imply most/much of African flavours are somehow aesthetically UNpleasing to a NA audience, or that the value in this Probably Culturally Significant flavour is found in that IS pleasing to an NA audience.
I dunno. I'm hoping that this sentence just came out wrong?
Feel free to check out the ammendment.
ReplyDeleteAmendment is much better stated. ^^
ReplyDelete