^ Haha! So true, Trollheart.
Sharon Jones: 100 Days, 100 Nights
This album sounded a lot better than what I imagined when I first saw the cover.
The title track and opener is a good, soulful jazz-blues number, and if anyone overlooked the quality of Sharon Jones's voice on that one, her powerful voice is on full display on the next track.
Track 3, Tell Me, sounded more like what I'd expected just from looking at the album cover: a female singing sixties-style pop, but then the album returns to a jazzy style with Be Easy Baby. Next track has some really sweet stuff going on in the horn section, then the tempo slows down a bit with Let Them Knock , and to be honest, so does my interest at this point.
100 Days is a very polished performance with expert musicians and a great singer, but it doesn't hold my attention for long. I'm just not that interested in hearing an old-style jazz-club singer reciting songs about her man troubles. To me, the lyrics are kind of generic love-song stuff: "Something's changed in your eyes" "Doncha hear me calling" and I'm sure at some point SJ admonishes, "You'd better pack your bags".
I got two surprises from this album: TH's ten out of ten, and the album's recording date of 2007: from the cover (again) and the lyrics, I thought it might be some undiscovered gem from the '60s, but coming as it does from 40 years later, I'm inclined to deduct points for its unadventurousness.
So, a well-crafted album in a style I don't much care for: a bit of a rating dilemma, so I'll go for a hesitant 6/10
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