Dirty Little Secret

Katharine Whalen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 6, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: M.C. Records
• ASIN: B000FBHCNM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,216 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Funnest Game

2. Dirty Little Secret

3. You- Who

4. Follow

5. Meet Me By The Fire

6. The Garden

7. Angel

8. Want You Back

9. Long

10. In The Night

11. Three Blind Mice

12. Blur

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After fronting the Squirrel Nut Zippers in the nineties, Katherine Whalen took a turn exploring other genre specific music. With a jazz band, Katherine Whalen's Jazz Squad, she cast herself as a torchy chanteuse, garnering praise, but not a clear sense of her own direction. Now, after a seven year hiatus, she's come back having found her own contemporary voice. From the feverish rhythms of "The Funnest Game" to the majestic Brian Wilson-like title track, the set moves with ease between contrasting settings and styles. And far from making this a disjointed whole, it's Whalen's singing and the sympathetic arrangements by producer David Sale (who also played all of the instruments) that tie the whole thing together. The disc's variety is one of its strengths. Her voice can is as adept fronting a funky number like "You-Who" as it is on the dreamscape lullaby "Blur." --David Greenberger

Product Description

Katharine Whalen, former front-person in the roaring nineties swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers, is planning her return to music following a short hiatus with her first solo album in seven years, "Dirty Little Secret" released on June 6, 2006

Download.com describes the new album thusly: "A luscious array of jazz crooning over trip-hop beats and cabaret sensuality, Katharine Whalen drafts the script for a futuristic burlesque show that never stops. Dizzying and dazzling, Whalen dreams up masterpieces of exotica for decadent nightclubs with her eccentric and seductive charm. Picture the Squirrel Nut Zippers crossed with Portishead, then grab a martini for this mélange of the neurotic and erotic."

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 -- Trip-hopping Squirrel Nut Zipper, June 7, 2006

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dirty Little Secret (Audio CD)

Eschewing the hot-jazz of her former combo, Squirrel Nut Zippers, vocalist Katharine Whalen brings her quirky singing style to an equally quirky modern context. Unlike her 1999 Jazz Squad outing, Whalen's hooked up with writer and multi-instrumentalist David Sale for a funky, trip-hop excursion into sounds that bounce like an amped-up version of Portishead's "Dummy." The production compellingly syncopates instrumental lines, multilayered background voices and danceable tempos beneath Whalen's vocals. There's an undercurrent of exotica that rises to the fore on the percussive "The Garden" and brass-lined "Want You Back." Whalen's voice still has the Billie Holiday edge of her SQN releases, but the impact is completely different in this most surprising and inventive context. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's smokey jazz eccentric pop at it's best!, June 12, 2006

By 

J.Luna "jL" (San Francisco, California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty Little Secret (Audio CD)

You know, I'm not really sure what's with the dude from motor city, perhaps too much carbon monoxide in his hair, but this album bleeding rocks! Every tune on this album is full of surprise and I, for one (and few of my friends I've played it for), quite enjoy listening to "Dirty Little Secret"! The music is inventive and has a quirky, fun charm to it; her vocals are so smooth and seductive as they rub in sensuous contrast to the driving rhythm and stabbing horns of the music; the lack of corporate input on the production is refreshing and I most certainly would recommend this music to anyone who enjoys original contemporary pop music.

I'm actually mostly unaware of Katherine Whalen's previous stint with The Squirrel Nut Zippers or that of her collaborator, David "Camus" Sale. I'm a newer fan who found them about a year or so ago on myspace.com when they were calling themselves "The Kat'n'Mike Club" and offered up the first song "The Funnest Game"...and I've been a fan ever since! In fact, it's my humble opinion, that "The Funnest Game" alone is worth the price of the album!

I have since gone back and found some the old Squirrel Nut music and her previous solo effort, Jazz Squad, but can't say that I liked it all that much; too jazzy, too protracted and not engaging enough for this listener. I did pick up on the Camus' album, "The Sins of The Father", and enjoyed that music immensely (see that review), although I wonder why Sale hasn't garnered more attention. As for the production quality of "Dirty Little Secrets" and the heavy use of multi-layered effects, I do think it could have benefited from more of a live feel; then again, when and if Katherine Whalen goes on tour and comes to my little town (San Francisco), I am very much looking forward to experiencing these tunes live for a new sound.

Overall I would give this album five very solid stars. The songs are wonderfully crafted, the vocal performance is very powerful and the smokey jazz influence blends well with the eccentric pop tunes. I highly encourage you to give it a listen as well!

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rollicking fun cd, June 10, 2006

By 

Crystal Ball - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty Little Secret (Audio CD)

At first it was a shock to hear Katharine in this modern Style. But from the opening song "The Funnest Game", which kicks, to the last song Blur this almbum just does it. I think I've played it ten times now and it just keeps getting better. Choice cuts for me are
"Follow", "Three Blind Mice" and "Want you back". I like "Angel" too though, which seems to be a song a bout a girl returning from an insane asylum. I love I love Lucy, so I recognized the referance in The Funnest Game to an old Vaudville routine. Slowly I turned, step by step... lol funny.