Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Americ[an]a's New Sweetheart?, March 6, 2008
With this album Dawn Landes builds nicely on her two earlier, limited availability, releases: "Dawn's Music"(2005)and the excellent mini-album "Two Three Four"(2006). Indeed you'll find a track from the former and two from the latter on "Fireproof".
What we have here is a fine album planted firmly in the Americana landscape. With songs ranging from the folksy 'I Don't Need No Man', to a tough, but not entirely successful, rock-out like 'Picture Show' there is still plenty of time for sweet country-tinged musings along the way, 'Tired Of This Life' and 'You Alone' being obvious standouts. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the 'hidden track' version of Tom Petty's 'Won't Back Down',which, in its original form, while having a certain catchy 'anthem of defiance' quality, has always been an eminently throw-away-pop ditty. Dawn Landes takes this song and imbues it with a wistful sadness that you would not have thought possible, such that the song becomes genuinely moving, achieving what all good cover versions should aim for, casting the song in a totally new light. Incidentally I nearly forgot to mention, her voice is excellent throughout.
Overall I would suggest that this is a good album but not a great one, some of the songs just don't quite do it, but there is enough quality here to ensure that you are unlikely to regret the purchase if you decide to make it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shining Dawn, May 9, 2008
Dawn Landes has produced a haunting and captivating record that combines the earth-bound honesty of Americana with soaring moments of exquisite power and textured beauty. Ms. Landes worked at one of New York's premier recording studios, and her mastery of technique and technology is evident on many tracks, elevating this CD above the prosaic guitar strumming/pedal steel that characterizes even the best of the rest of this genre. One of the finest records I've come across in this or any recent year. "Fireproof" has withstood my many efforts to wrest it from the CD player.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Music for dawn, twilight, and any other time, June 24, 2008
An intriguing and beautiful album by someone who has already left an incredible mark on the world of 'underground' pop music. Just as original and wonderful as her first, but with less avante-garde music and more of a folk and country sound that seems to show the influence of her native Kentucky. For some, the traditional folk tune "I Don't Need No Man" may come across as some kind of Lesbian anthem, although there is no evidence of this persuasion in Landes herself, and she is seen dancing with a man in the video for the romantic "Twilight."
Some songs seem very appropriate in a time of fear and a series of national and international disasters. One is "Bodyguard," with its wonderful personification and description of paranoid household items. Another is the touching "Dig Me a Hole," which expresses a longing to be sheltered from the craziness of the big city after moving from a small town. "Tired of This Life" is a beautiful track that sums up the way I believe many people feel living through the disturbing and often sad years of the early 21st Century. The melancholic "fireworks" passage reminds me of recent 4th of July celebrations during an era when patriotism seems to be forced rather than genuine.
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by Dawn Landes 
