Baby Blue [Extra tracks, Import]

Mary Lou Lord | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 19, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Toshiba EMI Japan
• ASIN: B00028XE3U
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #772,483 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Wind Blew All Around Me

2. Long Way From Tupelo

3. 43

4. Baby Blue

5. Cold Kilburn Rain

6. Farming It Out

7. Inhibition Twist

8. Because He's Leaving

9. Someone Always Talks

10. Turn Me Round

11. Stars Burn Out

12. Ron

13. Fearless

14. Old Tin Tray

15. Speeding Motorcycle

16. Driven Away

17. Right On 'Til Dawn

Editorial Reviews

The summer of 2003 saw Mary head to England and enter the studio with longtime collaborator Nick Soloman of cult icon The Bevis Frond. Entitled Baby Blue, the recordings are her first with a full on band since her days of major label national prominence and the results are heartfelt alt-country flourishes mixed with catchy soft rock in the vein of Got No Shadow. Included in the mix are a few classic rock covers--"Baby Blue" by Badfinger, which also lends it’s name to the record, and "Fearless" by Pink Floyd, each given the distinctive Mary Lou treatment. The album will be released in March 2004, with Mary Lou resuming her touring schedule, taking a full band with her across the country and abroad, giving the whole world the chance to admire her. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Album, Wish I Didn't Have To Wait Six Years, March 24, 2004

By 

Pop Kulcher "Pop Kulcher" (San Carlos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Blue (Audio CD)

Pop Kulcher Review: A much-appreciated return, with six years passing since her last (and only) full-length studio release. Worth the wait? Pretty much, yeah. As on '98's Got No Shadow, Mary Lou is backed by a full band, alternating between folky, acoustic numbers and upbeat pop-rockers. As always, her frail, child-like vocals and decent fretwork set her apart from most of her peers. Nick Saloman (best known for his trippy psychedelic indie rock albums under the Bevis Frond Moniker) continues his working relationship with Lord, this time around writing or co-writing nearly every song. That's a mixed blessing; he writes to her strengths, so it's a solid fit, but she's a decent songwriter in her own right, and it would be nice to hear more of her own voice -- of course, as the numerous covers on past EP's (not to mention 2002's solo acoustic Live City Sounds album) confirm, she is a less than prolific songwriter, and does just fine as an interpreter of others' work, so I'm not complaining. On the whole, I'd say there are fewer out-of-the-ballpark winners here than on Got No Shadow (which benefitted from a few outstanding songs that had been in her repertoire for some time). However, the album sounds better; its predecessor had a dull, overpolished sheen to it, while Baby Blue positively jumps out of the speakers, with guitars ringing and chiming. Even when the tracks tend to blend together, Lord's shimmering, wispy vocals keep your attention. In addition to the Lord/Saloman tracks, there are two covers this time around. The title track is pretty loyal to the immortal Badfinger classic (and it's always nice to see some royalties go to the estate of the late great Pete Ham) -- but it's an uninspired pick (like-minded Barbara Manning did a fine job with it a decade ago, and Superchunk side-project Portastatic offered it up on an EP just a few weeks ago). More interesting is her take on Pink Floyd's "Fearless" (one of the finest moments from Floyd's pre-Dark Side folkie era), though I would've preferred a bit more prominence to Lord's vocals and less emphasis on Saloman's psychedelic guitar workout at the end. In any event, it's an excellent album, a nice addition to the sadly slight Mary Lou Lord canon.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent album; she sounds great with a full band!, March 16, 2004

By 

cplewis "cplewis" (Merrifield, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Baby Blue (Audio CD)

Folksinger Mary Lou Lord has always sung other people's songs, and she continues that tradition here, working with Bevis Frond mastermind Nick Saloman, playing both Frond songs and newly-penned Saloman tunes. She usually performs solo, but here she's got a full band to back up her breathy voice.

Overall, this is a solid effort from Lord, her first studio album in quite some time. Much of the album is peppy and upbeat, but she reworks the Frond's melancholy "Why Stars Burn Out" almost certainly as a memorial to her longtime friend Elliott Smith. With that song and with all the other covers on this album, she takes other people's songs and makes them clearly her own.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The return of Mary Lou Lord, March 9, 2004

By 

Mr. Gary L. Shapiro (Aptos, ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Blue (Audio CD)

Mary Lou Lord is back with a very beautiful new cd recorded in England with her friend Nick Saloman of Bevis Frond. The songs are lovely and beautifully sung in Mary Lou Lord's tiny voice. She has been suffering from dysphonia, a disease which makes it difficult for her to speak or sing, and yet she has created her best work yet.