New album: SongVersation
Artist: India.Arie
Label: Motown
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Sounding less labored and more joyful than her previous “Testimony” collection, India.Arie’s “SongVersation” benefits from solid songwriting and unorthodox instrumentation.
Arei’s confident, untreated vocals are the star of “SongVersation,” but the decision to incorporate Turkish instrumentation gives the album its unique sound. Honestly, how many R&B albums feature an Oud or string players from Istanbul?
Arie’s voice and tasteful acoustic guitar playing blend well with the exotic musical flourishes, giving the album a slight international feel while never straying too far from the R&B palette.
While self-confidence doesn’t seem to be a problem for much of the general public these days, “Just Do You” (as in “just be yourself”) is an upbeat ode to the individual. It’s hard not to picture “Just Do You” in a makeover montage package on the Wendy Williams show, but Irie’s earnest performance never sounds contrived. The following track “This Love” is a bit pedestrian by Arie standards, but it’s the only stumble on an otherwise strong album.
“Break the Shell” is a high-water mark in Arie’s career. Written by Arie and David Ryan Harris, “Break the Shell” is musically spare but lyrically dense. When Arie sings “a life without pain is a wolf in sheep’s clothes,” she does it without an ounce of melancholia; she’s absorbing advice and passing it along.
“I Am Light” ends the album on a triumphant note, with Arie’s subtle but splendid guitar playing emoting just as much as the soaring string section that eventually takes over.
“SongVersation” is a classicist soul album in the most modern sense of the word. The sounds and subject matter on this collection will never date the work, and that’s the difference between enduring art and disposable entertainment.
Classic album: Born In the U.S.A.
Artist: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Label: Columbia
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Boasting seven Top 10 singles, “Born in the U.S.A” made Bruce Springsteen an international superstar. The album and its supporting tour sold in the millions, and in the end there was no way to follow it up.
When Springsteen released the double album “The River” in 1980, most assumed that would be his watershed moment. It was a sprawling, 20-track album and it featured his first Top 10 hit as a performer, “Hungry Heart.” To counteract the massiveness of “The River,” Springsteen offered up “Nebraska,” a collection of songs about dark, desperate characters he recorded largely on his own at home. No one realized the follow-up to “Nebraska” would be a harder swing at the fences than “The River.”
Although most of the characters that inhibit the “Born in the U.S.A.” songs are disaffected in some way, the music is big and anthemic in the tradition of “Who’s Next'-era Who.” Max Weinberg’s drums were never louder, and his forceful playing kept even romantic fare such as “Bobby Jean” and “Dancing in the Dark” on the bombastic side of tastefulness.
The most misunderstood song on the album (and probably of Springsteen’s career) is “Born in the U.S.A.” Legions of people latched onto the gargantuan “I was born in the U.S.A.” chorus, but their jingoism was misplaced. Anyone paying attention to the verses would have realized the song was about a Vietnam veteran who came home to a country that had virtually nothing for him.
Every song on “Born in the U.S.A” received airplay on album rock stations (they don’t exist anymore; Google it), and the few songs that weren’t released as singles could have been. “My Hometown” and “Glory Days” were tailor-built for baby-boomers who were already starting to look over their shoulders. “Darlington County” and “Working on the Highway” are great road songs, while the incendiary “Cover Me” and gentle “I’m on Fire” provide a little something for the ladies.
“Born in the U.S.A.” was one of the last big rock albums and ended up being an albatross for its creator for nearly a decade after its release. Nevertheless, with “Born in the U.S.A,” Springsteen wrote a stunningly good batch of songs that were bolstered by one of the greatest bands in the world. No matter what Springsteen obsessives may try to tell you, “Born in the U.S.A.” is one of Springsteen’s greatest works.
Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon’s book ‘Making Gravy in Public’ at Amazon.com or jondawson.com.