Grand

Erin McKeown

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 10, 2003)
• Original Release Date: June 10, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nettwerk Records
• ASIN: B00009L524
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,325 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Alternative Rock > Alternative Styles > Alternative Folk

Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

Erin McKeown's third album is to be commended for its sense of adventure. There are 14 tracks on Grand and they encompass at least that number of musical styles, among them winsome indie-pop, gentle country-rock, lushly orchestrated barrel-organ stompery and pretty electronica that verges on trip-hop. When trying to frame McKeown in terms of other artists, you end up with an equally impressively diverse peer group: Tanya Donelly, Rickie Lee Jones, Bjork, Liquorice and Shivaree (with whom McKeown shares a drummer, George Javori).

An album this stylistically promiscuous needs a fairly imposing central personality to hold it all together, and McKeown just about manages on this score, as well. Her voice, while somewhat cutesy and cloying, never becomes overbearingly so--it's at its best on a lovely version of the Judy Garland standard "Lucky Day"--and she's an engaging narrator of her tales. There aren't enough songwriters to whom it would occur to write a song in the form of a letter from Igor Stravinsky, holed up in Hollywood in the 1940s while he waited in vain for Dylan Thomas to recover from tuberculosis so the pair could write an opera together. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand Indeed!, May 31, 2005

By	jessicaelizabeth (United States) - See all my reviews

This is one of those rare discs that grows on me the more I listen to it. It's catchy and upbeat, so it works as pure ear candy in the background when I have guests. But it also works in a more intimate setting, in headphones while walking or working out, because there's quite a bit going on in the lyrics too.

Erin McKeown has a fascinating voice. It's kind of tangy, like Dido or Rachael Yamagata, and she brings subtly different vocal characterizations to the different songs. She's not just singing, she's acting, which is appropriate, because one of Grand's themes is the golden age of film. Judy Garland is referenced in two songs, "cinematic" and "vera," and used to perform a third, "lucky day." "cosmopolitans" and "a better wife" debunk hollywood fictions of the ideal life, but the jazzy vocals and music lends a layer of spunky irony. "Cosmopolitans" warns me that "loneliness is expected if not predicted," and although I get the message, I can't help immediately singing along with the insanely catchy, sedative-seeking chorus that follows: "painless! don't you wish you were weightless! famous!"

This is the first Erin McKeown album I purchased (I bought it after hearing "a better wife," which is unlike any other song i've heard recently). I've never seen her perform. Some McKeown fans say this album is too mainstream; compared to her previous work it may be more radio-friendly. (I do find the chorus of "James" reminiscent of Jem's "24!") But in my opinion, this album is far from mainstream. It's catchy, but it's also quirky. The music is retro-influenced. The lyrics are clever. There is only one song I don't like on this album ("vera", kind of drab). And there is only one thing I don't love about this album: it's too well-crafted to be confessional. McKeown uses the term "lady" incessantly on this album. She's very aware of appearances, especially when she's mocking them; and I feel like the emotions here are filtered, so this isn't a good album for cathartic moods (unless you want to be cheered up despite yourself)! But overall I love "Grand". It's fun, it's intelligent, it's my favorite album right now, and I will definitely buy McKeown's next as soon as it comes out.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for cosmopolitans, October 10, 2003

By	lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

There's a tag in small type at the top of the cover of Erin McKeown's great new "Grand" CD--clearly one of the best efforts of the year--that reads "panoramic and spectacular!" That's not hype. This collection is all of that.

Erin's vibrato-free expressive alto is capable of a variety of things, as she amply demonstrates here. There's not a false move anywhere. The highlights are the jazzy "Slung-lo," the trippy "Cosmolitans" (can this be labeled "jazz hop"? do we have to label it at all?), the noisy "Cinematic" and the dramatic "An Innocent Fiction." There's one cover--of the pop standard "Lucky Day"--which Erin slows down and does in a "high lonesome" style. It's meant as a tribute to Judy Garland, of whom Erin is clearly a fan.

The whole CD, with its mix of styles old and new, is like a postmodern building with an Art Deco lobby. That conception probably wouldn't work well. "Grand," however, does.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Grand Central, July 31, 2003

By	"ssspoonah" (Hamilton, VA United States) - See all my reviews

Wow! Having listened to Miss McKeown since she was 19 or so (go find a copy of her demo tape--even that's fantastic!) it floors me how she has evolved and honed her musical talents, through her three full-length albums and the Voices on the Verge project. Straight up, Grand is a tour de force. It is a standard, and will change the face of folk/rock music in as subtle and charming a way as only The Lady could do. I rarely put CDs on repeat, and Grand didn't leave my cd player for almost a week! Each song is such a stand-alone that the entire album comes across as a compilation of genres, tempos and even eras, rather than a single project by a single artist. Be it the swing style of "Taste of You", the rockin' beats of "Cinematic" or the classic Garland tune (with a slower tempo than the standard) of "Lucky Day" McKeown has a keen idea of what she can do and, more importantly, what she will do. Barely over 5' tall and just 25, McKeown shoulders more instruments, more genres and more musical understanding than just about anyone else out there, be they of similar age or not! How does so much talent fit into such a little person?
I am thrilled to be able to be an auditory spectator to the musical montage that is McKeown. If you are muddling over purchasing this album, think no more. Go get it. It will be, hands down, the best [$$] you will spend this year.