Customer Reviews

Duel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought a copy of this album late on the day my daughter was admitted to an intensive care unit for respiratory failure. I first played it late in the evening of that terrible day, and if I've ever felt more comfort from an album, I don't know what it would be.

Allison Moorer has a voice that's a little like Wynona Judd without the candy. It is a deep, resonant alto with huge dynamic range. The songs she writes and those she covers on this fine disc are performed with such conviction, it's breathtaking. Here and there, one of her lyrics fall flat, but so what? Her performance here is incredibly honest and polished. If you understand songs that address loss and redemption, you'll love this.

The lyrics are grim at times but so is life, and when the album ends, her final cut, which one reviewer here disliked, sounds like an aural sunrise to me. There is hope here, and its a big reason why the album works.

While I usually discuss recordings song-by-song, I won't attempt to do it, because the whole here is greater than the sum of its parts. Moorer's producer and Rounder Records have done an ear-opening job of recreating a late sixties-era sound -- like Neil Young's classic EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE. The opening cut smacks a little of DOWN BY THE RIVER, but it won't put you off.

Would I have preferred a more generous recording, say: more than 45 minutes? Sure. But except for this issue, I absolutely love the courage and conviction of these songs and the heroic sound of moorer's voice. As far as staying power, I am 52 years old and rarely replay albums as often as I have replayed this one. It sounds fresh after ten spins.

Soul is a word that starts with R&B and expands in concentric circles to include other forms of music. Ms. Moorer has created her own form. It is neither rock nor folk nor country, but it goes straight to the bone.

If you love Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits and especially Lucinda Williams, you will love this recording. For those who didn't know, Allison Moorer has arrived at last. To say that her performance here exceeds anything her sister Shelby Lynne has done would not be fair, but in her own way, she has done it and deserves all the notoriety she can get along the way.

Strongly recommended. If this one isn't named a classic this year, write back and yell at me.

When Allison Moorer came onto the music scene in 1998, with her major label debut ALABAMA SONG on MCA, she sang a soulful kind of country music that was all her own. Now in 2004, she released her 4th studio album on the independant label Sugar Hill. The sound has evolved a bit from the country sound, to a more rock edged sound that is evident throughout, especially the opening track "I Ain't Giving Up On You". Moorer is a confident songwriter, and a darn good one at that. Not only for lyrical reasons, but she knows how to write a catchy hook. Look no further than the song "Melancholy Polly". There's still some country elements, but with THE DUEL it sounds like Allison Moorer is more and more coming into her own sound, constantly evolving. Other highlights include the title track, "One On the House", "Believe You Me", and "All Aboard".

Having received virtually no joy from country radio to date, Allison Moorer not only took leave of the big labels for the rootsier confines of Sugar Hill Records, but she also took a harder approach to her music with her new release THE DUEL. A huge rock influence pervades this entire album, as does a new sophistication to her songwriting, albeit an arguably cynical and dark tone.

Allison hasn't completely forsaken her country roots as can be demonstrated on the steel-laden "One On The House", though even here the feel of the song is closer to James Taylor's "Bartender's Blues" than to any of today's standard-issue Nashville drinking songs. It helps that Allison's smoky R&B-influenced voice is as good as it is. Probably as gutsy a song as she could have ever written is the sardonic "All Aboard", which takes an underhanded swipe at the rampant far right-wing post-9/11 jingoism, even utilizing some of the right's own language ("and if you don't love it, you can leave") only to throw it back on them. Doubtless that this means Allison will get even less airplay at country radio now than the minuscule airplay she's gotten in the past, but it seems like she's gone past the point of caring there.

Those two cuts go along with nine other fine examples of Allison's merging of alternative country with R&B-influenced classic rock and show conclusively that there's a lot more to her than being Kid Rock's first sidekick on "Picture" or the kid sister to Shelby Lynne. THE DUEL is an album that demands to be taken seriously, as does Allison herself.

Although this album is very different from Moorer's last album, I feel that "The Duel" is a real breakout album for her that shows her versatility and true artistry. I feel that is only the exceptionally talented that have the ability to find their own voice and own style in different genres of music, and Moorer falls into this category of the exceptionally talented. This album is a little less country and a little more rock but all Allison Moorer. Her smoky vocals and blunt songwriting blend in perfectly with the gritty roots rock sound (with a hint of twang). Her powerful and complex lyrics back by the rawness of her voice makes for one explosive song after another. My personal favorite is the gut wrenching "Believe You Me". Her voice is so penetrating and the guitar sound in this song is so powerful that it forces you to take the song in with your entire being. Moorer's songwriting is complex and questioning, and what songwriting should be. An incredible album by an incredible artist.

Allison Moorer cannot be pigeonholed. Sure she is from Nashville country -- more George Jones than George Strait -- , and that breeding is clear here, especially on the fabulous One on the House. But there is a lot more as well, including blues-infused tunes that could easily have come from the harder edged section of Bonnie Raitt's songbook (e.g All Aboard, a sour twist on cheap patriotism). An almost pop sound bounces through When Will You Ever Come Down, one of the weaker cuts, with lyrics that belie the upbeat music. Sing Me to Sleep, a uplifting lullaby at the end of life, has an Appalachian feel to it. Baby Dreamer, kicked off with the wonderful lyric "There's a foreign movie/Up on your silver screen..", is a torchy rock ballad.

Along with the impressive array of musical styles, Moorer's intelligent and mature lyrics convey tales of human struggle and, often, hard-fought failure. Best of all is the title track and its loss of faith sung to a stark piano and harmonica backing. Her voice, by the way, reminds me a lot of Maria McKee. It's one powerful instrument.

The Duel impresses more with each complete listening -- and it is an album meant for hearing in its entirety at one sitting. A few more months and it might be five stars; for now the couple of humdrum tunes among the superb ones keep it at four.

This is a wonderful country-rock type album with a heavy Neil Young influence. Moorer's voice is sexy and bluesy and glides effortlessly over crunchy, hot, yummy guitars. A seriously melancholic thread weaves its way through every track, (w/ lyrics like "The cuckoo clock quit chirping/The bird fell out and died/Spent its whole life working/And never learned to fly/It ran out of time."), which is very much to my liking.
Also recommended: Anne McCue's Roll. She's an Australian femme w/ serious electric guitar chops.

She just keeps getting better. Goodbye MCA Nashville label, Hello Sugar Hill Records!

I might as well just cut-and-paste all the superlatives about Allison Moorer from my reviews of her other records, because the same thing applies with "The Duel". This record has a more stripped-down feel than previous efforts, but that just proves that it all boils down to the songwriting and vocal performance.

"I Ain't Giving Up On You" and "Baby Dreamer", the two tracks that lead off this record, are the standouts for me.

Truthfully, I'm getting tired of gushing over her records. It is getting to be too repetitive. If there were ANY inconsistencies to her writing and singing talent, at least there would be something to discuss here. But there isn't. She hits a home run every damn time.

In terms of talent, she is a walking embarrassment of riches.

As long as she keeps crankin' out records, I'm lining up to buy them.

Go on, dear Amazonians --- read all the reviews you can find here on her 5 (to date) records. She's got hundreds of gleefully gushing reviews, and she deserves every single one of them!

I am loving Allison Moorer's new disk. A bit tougher than the other material I've heard her do (though for full disclosure, I have never heard an entire album or hers before). It is closer to Shelby Lynne's music, but more accessible and consistent. Stark arrangements add to the rawness of the lyrics. Her alto fits the material perfectly too.

"Believe You Me" is one of the best songs I've heard over the past year - and she uses a good turn of a phrase in the lyric. But I really like "Melancholy Polly" and "Once Upon a Time She Said" has a frickin' great lyric ("It's unpopular to be unpopular"). But "All Aboard" is what I'm assuming is the anti-Toby Keith over-the-top patriotism song. Or at least I hope it is. All the songs are better than good - and obviously some better than others. The last song isn't my taste, but it doesn't harm the overall feel of the disk.

Unexpected and possibly the best disk I've bought in 2004!

Although I've had this CD for several years, I thought it was time to add my brief feelings about Allison Moorer's Album. Allison's voice and her band simply move me. This CD of mood music once again delivers those melodic sounds that for me reach deep down somewhere in my soul. One reviewer called it "dark". So interesting how we can hear and see the same thing but be taken in different directions. So often I hear songs on the radio that do very little to affect my feelings. But when I listen to such songs by Allison Moorer I just don't understand why her songs are not the ones being played on the radio. It's her music that reaches within to grab my feelings.

Allison Moorer's the duel is a dark and redemptive album which searches for light in the darkest corners, rarely finding it and often giving up. Much like Beth Hart's Leave the Light On, it deals with the quest for that elusive something that might bring peace amongst characters who have seen far too little peace in their life to recognize the substance. It shies away from the easier, more restful solutions Hart finds in songs like "Sky Full of Clover" and instead winds up walking the knife's edge between heaven and hell that winds up being life.
The album stars with it's two hopeful songs. "I Ain't Giving Up On You" finds her asserting "The tin horn's jumping off of the deep end/betting on a million to one shot." But she tempers the optimism with "All I want to do is break even." This is followed by "Baby Dreamer," a plea to a loved one stuck so far in the dark that they can never see the beauty. Moorer twists this around to herself on "Melancholy Polly" about a singer with the question of whether or not her dark songs are a self fulfilling prophesy because "her life only happens for a song to sing." "She tears into "Believe You Me," a song about desperate searches for faith in anything or anyone, with the fervor of a street corner bible thumper. Then she sinks into the quiet desperation of an alcoholic trying to talk a bartender into a single drink, just to keep going. Next comes the ferocious rant of "All About," a dark rant about the current fervor of patriotism, with military undercurrents that bring to mind images of Nazi goose-stepping. "The Duel" is a haunting, ironically hymn like ballad which finds the protagonist not so much denying God as finding faults with him, "Faithfulness was my excuse/now tell me what was yours." "When Will You Ever Come Down" has a deceptively bright melody which underscores the moral of how crutches of escapism become barriers, "joyrides for the pain/sparkling in your brain/nothing's there just a haze/Swallowing up your days/When will you ever come down." Next she takes off down the trail of four hapless men taken to the edge of their varied existences and Louise, who "is in the Blue Moon/putting up her dukes." This segues into the stunning beauty of "Once Upon A Time She Said." The title itself rings of broken fairy tales and this song shatters the biggest one of all--that if you work hard enough you can change the world. This song finds the protagonist not so much at the crossroad, but rather at the end of the road and realizing that she is without the strength to go any further. "Sing Me To Sleep" is a quiet lullaby, almost a punctuation that refuses to allow the listener to comfort themselves with the idea that somehow the characters we heard about got their lives together and lived happily ever after. Quite the contrary, it all stops here.
Janet Turner Hospital opens The Last Magician with the lines, "In the middle of the journey, I came to myself in a dark wood where the straight way was lost. No. That is not the way to put it. In the middle of the darkness I came to the black fact that there was no straight way--no way on, no way out." This album is about the moment when a persons realizes the difference between those two things--the difference between the way out being lost and the way out not being there at all.