Customer Reviews

Chinatown

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This album is really good, it's the kind of music that makes all your headaches go away. No showing off, no over-the-top voices, no see-how-hip-we-are rhythms. It's like coming home after a long day's work. I can listen to hip-hop, lounge, jazz, r&b, house, punk, reggae, funk, soul, and everything in between when I go out, but when I come home, this album is the kind of music I want to hear. By the way, did anyone ever mention the similarities with Ray Lamontagne's first album 'Trouble'? Yes, I know that's a man, but the singing and frasing, and even the musical resources on both these masterpieces are very similar. Great Tanyas.

More cohesive than Blue Horse, which was still a terrific album, Chinatown is a great sophomore release. I only got it three days ago, but it has not left my CD player. From the haunting Townes Van Zandt cover, "Waiting Around To Die," to the intoxicating quiet exuberance of "Ship Out On the Sea," and the arrangements of "Reuben" and "House of the Rising Sun" (almost unrecognizable at first unless you are paying close attention to the words), this album is lush and original. The music almost transcends its recording; the songs seem to grow and evolve with every play. Like the Tanyas' previous release, Chinatown is a breath of fresh air in this time of pre-fab music and stunningly uninspired radio fare. You can have your naked pop and countrypop princesses; I'll take the Tanyas' modest thrift-store style and funkyfolk harmonies any day.

The Be Good Tanyas's album "Chinatown" includes tough accoustic versions of traditional blues and folk songs as well as some of their own material. The sound is stripped down and spare, with often a banjo being the only musical accompanyment to the three members vocals. The highlights of the disc are the opening "It's Not Happening," "In Spite of All the Damage," "Ship Out on the Sea" and Horses." There are also a couple of hidden tracks that appear after the last song ahas ended. On the downside, the album is a tad overlong, featuring a few numbers, like the surprisingly unengaging cover of "House of the Rising Sun," that don't work as well.

Overall, a solid sphomore effort from a trio of fine Canadian roots rockers.

Sad, sweet, soulful, superb, haunting, moving, exquisite, evocative, soft, lovely. I run out of adjectives long before I run out of intense feeling for these three women (Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, and Trish Klein) and the music they are creating. A warm and inventive combination of traditional, folk, blues, bluegrass (really the latter only `cause they use the banjo), the music of The Be Good Tanyas is some of the most wonderful music around.

Their three voices are amazing enough that any of them could be a soloist, but when they braid and intertwine and harmonize they are positively transporting. Accompanying themselves on banjo, guitar, mandolin, ukulele, harmonica and a bit of electric guitar, they offer new life and powerful interpretations to traditional songs (House of the Rising Sun, In My Time of Dying, I wish My Baby Was Born), as well as to music they compose themselves. I would stack the Tanyas' version of In My Time of Dying against anyone's, and that includes Dylan, Led Zeppelin (they did a terrific version on Physical Graffiti!), Mellencamp, and Beth and April Stevens.

Chinatown is their second album, (2003), and will be no disappointment to fans of Blue Horse (2000), their first amazing album. My only sadness is that The Be Good Tanyas don't produce more music more faster. C'mon ladies, make us another one soon!

This CD shows tremendous growth since Blue Horse, also an excellent CD. It's surpassed here, though. The music is tighter, the singing more evocative, and the songwriting stronger. The songs are sadder, as several have noted, but they're also better (though I could have done without the cover of In My Time of Dying). You're not human if they don't touch you to the core. Older songwriters might tap deeper veins, but there is such sweet sad earnestness here. This group will improve with age, but the songs of their youth will remain memorable. There are several really great songs, but the cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Waiting Around to Die" stands out, absolutely stunning me every time I listen to it. It's as if these young women captured Townes' soul in all its gentle melancholy. All in all, you get the same unique sound as on their previous CD, but with greater lyrical depth. I can't imagine anyone who liked their first CD not loving this one unless they were looking for cheery songs like Littlest Birds again, which indeed are not to be found here.

This is fresh. Captivating. You'll find yourself listening to this CD over and over again. You'll definitely want to buy "Blue Horses" as well. This is honest music straight from the heart, with enough of a twist to make it really interesting.

i ran across the be good tanyas on the web a few weeks ago and downloaded a few tracks and thought they were gorgeous. i just got the album today and it is really beautiful. a wonderful instrumental balance and restrained-but-evocative vocals. once again, it's just really beautiful. if you like rickie lee jones, mary lou lord, emmylou harris, and the like, you'll most likely enjoy this.

...Chinatown is probably the best CD in this genre I've heard. The vocals are unbelieveable. The original songs blew me away and the interpretations of the standards just changed my whole visions of the songs. You can't go wrong with this CD and if I ever become shipwrecked...I hope I have this CD ...and Rainy Day Music by the Jayhawks when I'm shipwrecked on an island somewhere.

If you have a soul, it will be stirred by "Chinatown." Moving, in a very literal way, their vocals and acoustics give me the distinct impression that I'm riding through various eras on an Amtrak train-a teleport in a CD.

Lovely, meditative music perfect for creative endeavors, massage, romantic interludes even a bubble bath. "Chinatown" makes a great foil to our complex and often-chaotic times. The Be Good Tanyas are new to me but I'd happily buy their first CD and their next one as well.

Sad, sweet, soulful, superb, haunting, moving, exquisite, evocative, soft, lovely. I run out of adjectives long before I run out of intense feeling for these three women (Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, and Trish Klein) and the music they are creating. A warm and inventive combination of traditional, folk, blues, bluegrass (really the latter only `cause they use the banjo), the music of The Be Good Tanyas is some of the most wonderful music around.

Their three voices are amazing enough that any of them could be a soloist, but when they braid and intertwine and harmonize they are positively transporting. Accompanying themselves on banjo, guitar, mandolin, ukulele, harmonica and a bit of electric guitar, they offer new life and powerful interpretations to traditional songs (House of the Rising Sun, In My Time of Dying, I wish My Baby Was Born), as well as to music they compose themselves. I would stack the Tanyas' version of In My Time of Dying against anyone's, and that includes Dylan, Led Zeppelin (they did a terrific version on Physical Graffiti!), Mellencamp, and Beth and April Stevens.

Chinatown is their second album, (2003), and will be no disappointment to fans of Blue Horse (2000), their first amazing album. My only sadness is that The Be Good Tanyas don't produce more music more faster. C'mon ladies, make us another one soon!