Customer Reviews

Brave & The Bold

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to say that what I expected and what I got from this album are two fairly different things. It sounds neither like a Tortoise album or any of Will Oldham's alter-egos. What it does sound like is a new band from where two bands met each other half way. Another words, proving that these musicians are still open to new avenues dispite the success they have already formulated for themselves.
Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy (W.Oldham) took a bunch of cover songs and totally made them their own. I am familiar with the original versions of about half of the songs and they definitely molded them into something new and exciting.
For instance Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road almost sounds like a 70's prog song (a la Genesis)- it's an excellent version. I also love Cravo é Canela, Calvery Cross and It's Expected I'm Gone. Really, there isn't a bad song on here and overall it doesn't feel like an album of cover songs.
I hope they do it again- maybe next time with some originals mixed in. Definitely check this out if you are a Tortoise fan or a Will Oldham fan.

When I first heard this was coming out, it seemed an unusual pairing. When I learned it would be all covers my interest was even more piqued.

Upon listening and taking some time to digest, I like it quite a bit, although it is a departure for both Tortoise and Will Oldham. Tortoise with vocals? By necessity, they adopt a more conventional approach to song structure. And Oldham outside of his alternative folk mantle, singing Springsteen, Elton John, and the Minutemen?

"Thunder Road" trounces the overwrought original, and "Cravo e Canela" could go on twice as long without any complaint from me. "Daniel" and some of the other songs are less successful, even bearing a whiff of kitsch for kitsch's sake -- but overall the performances are solid, the selections are diverse, and the delivery is superb.

I got this because it was cheap at my local used disc store (Second Spin, in Costa Mesa) and I've generally followed Will Oldham...pretty wacky nutjob he is, too, but he's produced a lot of great, moving and well-written songs. Tortoise, I've also enjoyed...but, I didn't have very high expectations for this. I thought it would be way too out there, too experimental, and that it would drain everything good out of some songs I really loved...Well, I needn't have worried. The songs are treated with reverence, even if, in some cases, they're pretty much unrecognizable...the heart and soul are still there...

Great cover, too.

The problem with reviewing cover albums is relying on comparing the new song with the actual classic. Yet, when Will Oldham collaborates for the first time with the band, Tortoise, creating covers of classics, the songs they produce are exciting and new on their own. From Elton John to Milton Nascimento, the selections of The Brave and the Bold are interesting and the two artists combine their musical styles to form a bold collection that usually works.

When mixing both artists together, Oldham and Tortoise keep their signature sounds in tact as Oldham's dry voice moans his typical range in "Daniel" and Tortoise show off their normal rock stylings in "Love Is Love" (Lungfish) Yet, when listening to the album, it becomes obvious that Tortoise has the upper hand as their intricate instrumental ability far outshine Oldham's sometimes bored vocals that sometimes lack the range to match his background. For example, "(Some Say) I Got Devil" (Melanie) is lackluster in vocal performance but haunting in its instrumental.

The two sides do, however, work well together on songs such as "Pancho" (Don Williams) which Oldham loses his typical melancholy moans in exchange for optimistic vocals and Tortoise lends a more upbeat sound. "It's Expected I'm Gone" is orginally done by Minutemen and Oldham and Tortoise create a lingering, complexly beautiful song intertwined with a stoic guitar line. Furthermore, both sides show their ability to shift genres as they cover the Latin "Cravo E Canela" in an exciting mix of Oldham's subdued vocals, group singing and vibrant guitars. The highlight of the album is "Cavalry Cross" (Richard Thompson) which perfectly utizlizes Oldham's nuanced voice, supporting vocals and a hypnotic instrumental line.

After listening to this electic mix of covers, it's difficult to put your finger on exactly what the two artists were attempting to accomplish with this album. Eventually, you realize that this album has little agenda except to create an enjoyable album which Tortoise and Oldham successfully accomplish.

Tortoise's Grade : A (95)
Oldham's Grade : B- (82)
Overall : B+ (88)

Download :
Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy - Cravo E Canela, Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy - Cavalry Cross, Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy - It's Expected I'm Gone, Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy - Love Is Love

Skip It : Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy - Daniel, Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy - (Some Say) I Got Devil

Disclaimer: This review is not intended for Tortoise fans, I couldn't tell you anything about this in the context of their output.

I heard this album was done a bit tongue-in-cheek, a joke of sorts, Will and Tortoise having fun. I believe it. The two entities coming together and the resultant smashing together of disparate styles ain't easy to listen to. I am devoted Will Oldham fan and it is as a Bonnie Billy record that I am interested in this album. The presence of Tortoise pretty much trashes the Oldham aesthetic. And it's the Oldham aesthetic that I love, so there's not much for me here. The tracks I like the most are the two or three with little audible input from Tortoise. I don't mean to dis Tortoise or their fans (really, I don't); it's simply that they make a kind of music that doesn't move me. For me, this is a little novelty record to listen to every once in a while until the next Bonnie Prince Billy record comes out.

I like Tortoise (a lot) and I also like Bonnie Prince Palace Will Oldham Music Brothers (a lot). But the combination of the two here doesn't yield anything remarkable. Try, for example, to imagine in your head what those two covering Elton John's "Daniel" would sound like. Well, guess what, you're exactly right: Oldham's uncertain, shaky vocals meandering over bleepy, atmospheric Tortoise-y accompaniment. Nowhere on this disc does an unexpected result emerge, and if you're expecting something weird or unusual (like I was), you are likely to be disappointed.

That said, several of the tracks here ("Thunder Road" especially, but also "Calvary Cross" and "That's Pep,") are still quite solid, just because Will Oldham has a Johnny Cash-like ability to take almost any material and make it his own.

For me, Tortoise is one of those bands that can practically do no wrong. I say practically because I wasn't such a big fan of Standards, but that's neither here nor there. I'm not a big Will Oldham fan either, but I decided to pick this one up because of my love affair with tortoise(s).

I'm glad I did. It's refreshing to hear tortoise playing in a more "traditional" band setting (w/a singer - as they're an instrumental band), and they can really pack a punch. The opener, "Cravo E Canela" kicks things off with brazilian sounding instrumentation, vocals, and some kick-ass horns. They use dynamics extremely well on Springsteen's "Thunder Road", slowly building from solitary guitar and drums to a moog and guitar fueled climax. Even the sappy "Pancho" has its moments.

More than anything, these songs show the instrumental prowess of Tortoise and their ability to perform just about any style of music. Will Oldham's vocals are surprisingly good to me, but as I said I'm not really a fan of his other work. All in all, I've found this album to be extremely replayable and well worth the price of admission.

Ever hear a song in a record store(remember those relics?) and get a song stuck in your head. Well, that is what happened to me when I heard this cover of Springsteen's anthem, "Thunder Road." Hearing Will Oldham or whatever alter-ego he is going by( Bonnie "Prince" Billy) at the moment sold me immediately. "Thunder Road" is probably the best track and most accessible mainstream type song but Oldham and Tortoise are anything but mainstream, especially on this disc. Considering I like Tortoise I thought I'd give it a shot and I must say I was not disappointed. The musicianship is very hard to define but suffice to say it is a good blend of country-avant-garde-electronic music that makes you feel good; an unfamiliar sound that sounds all at once familar. Some are pretty far out there like "It's expected I'm gone" with enough wild rhythms and smoky vocals to give you a little shiver; it has a blood curdling audio effect, like music in search of a murder movie scene. It reminds me of desert scenes, like driving an old clunker through the southwest that transforms itself into a sleek racing vechicle and back again. The pacing is bizarre. There are several cool songs that fit into the unclassifiable niche ; something like being lost in the desert and seeing mirages. "Pancho" is a good old country boy song that is sweet. The first track, "Cravo E' Canela is quite unexpected which pretty much sums up the whole of this disc. Expect the unexpected; which is not a bad approach to life anyway.

I guess, in the interest of full disclosure, I do have to declare that I'm not enamored of the whole Will Oldham esthetic, except that I did (and still do) love "I See a Darkness", and I keep hoping he'll do something like that again. But, more and more, that album seems to be an anomaly in his set of works. That said, I had some hope that this Oldham/Tortoise collaboration on a wildly diverse set of covers would yield some pleasant surprises. Depending upon what you read, the group was either very sincere about this project or goofing on the whole idea of covers albums. At any rate I've found my hopes dashed again. The group pretty much reduces all of the songs to a similar, mid to slow tempo set that seems almost slap-dash or at least under-rehearsed. Not to mention uninspired. Even if these songs do mean something to the players, that doesn't seem to come out in the playing, certainly not in anything resembling passion. Tortoise seems to blithely ignore the actual chords and/or melodies of most of the songs, preferring a kind of noodling jazz accompaniment to Oldham's sleepy vocals. Now there's a way that can be done to reinvigorate a song, but it doesn't happen here. The notorious version of "Thunder Road" is maybe the best example of their approach. One reviewer here said it outshines the "over-wrought original". But Springsteen's romantic, poetic entreaty seems far more likely to entice Mary into his car than Oldham's lugubrious, unenthusiastic overture, which comes across more like that of some creepazoid stalker lurking outside Mary's screen door, mumbling and narrating to himself. Somehow I don't think Mary even knows this guy exists. But maybe that is the point - a narrative by the warped obsessed high school outsider ignored by Mary's shimmering self. Even that might be an approach, but this version is so anti-rock, so lugubrious and lackluster that it doesn't seem to stand for anything. And then there's Tortoise, dragging the tempo and vamping along with whatever chords come into their heads. And most of the rest of the songs follow a similar approach. The faster songs seem cramped, like it's a strain for them to play them. And the slower songs, which are most of them, seem dreary and draggy. I recently read an article online by Will Oldham that proclaimed his love for and inspiration from, of all acts, the Misfits! And it was a great, passionate, sincere article! It stunned me when I read it, since Oldham's own esthetic seems so much the opposite of Glenn Danzig's. I can't tell if Oldham deliberately decided to go down a different path, or if he just really can't rock, so he does what he can. We know from their albums that Tortoise can't rock, or at least choose not to. So the introverted, inverted performances we get on this album are completely in accord with the styles of these two. But that doesn't mean it makes for a bracing, invigorating experience - quite the opposite. This album was a chore to listen to, and I plan to re-sell it.