Customer Reviews

High Dive

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've loved Maria McKee since I first heard her band, Lone Justice, back in the '80s. She has remained my favorite singer despite the fact that her albums are few and far between. Her voice is luminous, soaring, soulful and so expressive it just rips your heart out. You can hear the intelligence, humor and passion in her delivery, whether she's singing her own brand of "alt-country" or belting out songs that seem better suited to Broadway than to the pop charts.

Since she hasn't had an album in 7 years, I had high expectations for this new CD. On first listen, I was unimpressed. "Overproduced" and "faltering" were the two words that came to mind. If Maria were any other singer, I would have filed this CD away and never listened to it again. But, since this is Maria, and since "High Dive" meant so much to her as an artist, I decided to listen and listen until I heard something that I liked. After all, you don't give up on a classic book just because it's a little difficult to read, and you don't walk away in confusion when faced with a challenging painting. I view Maria as one of the most talented creative forces of our time. She isn't mainstream. She doesn't want to be. Her work deserves more than just a token listen. If you still don't like it after several tries, that's fine, but I've learned not to write her off so easily. This album, which I really didn't like much at first, has become one of my favorites.

1. To the Open Spaces---catchy, great summer-driving-with-the-windows-down song. Her voice sounds a little like Madonna's here! I'm not crazy about the whistling or the way her voice veers off-key a little, but for the most part, she is at her best here.

2/3. Life is Sweet/Afterlife---this is Maria's personal favorite of her own songs, and since it's no longer available on her now-out-of-print 3rd solo CD, she decided to re-record it. I'm glad she did. It's a beautiful, transcendent song that deserves to be heard by more people.

4. Be My Joy---She sounds sexy & funny here; starts out as a love song and builds in intensity until it's a tragicomic Stalker Girl tour de force. This is why she's called the Little Diva.

5. High Dive---I'm guessing this is autobiographical. The lyrics feed into the Maria Myth that she's a bit on the difficult side, but most artists are. I just wonder what she and her producer-husband were thinking with the Partridge Family-sounding background. Maria and a guitar, nothing else, would have worked better.

6. My Friend Foe---I hated this song at first. Now it's one of my favorites. I love the ending where Maria repeats "never gonna let you go" and harmonizes perfectly. Classic.

7. In Your Constellation---One of the immediately accessible songs; her voice is great here; this is pure magic, even with the overproduced everything-but-the-kitchen-sink effect at the end. The refrain is a little reminiscent of her earlier work but still fresh-sounding.

8. Love Doesn't Love---Sultry, jazzy, knocks you out when the background kicks in, I love it, but (like a lot of these songs) it goes on just a little too long. I'd rather be left wanting more than waiting for it to finally end.

9. We Pair Off---Takes a few listens before you appreciate the passionate vocals, which have a scary intensity almost like "Breathe" from Maria's first solo CD. Again, it goes on a minute too long.

10. No Gala---Simple, theatrical; reminds me of "Has He Got a Friend For Me," which Maria didn't even write but which added a touch of heartbreaking innocence to her first CD. I can hear "No Gala" being sung just before the last act in a Broadway play. Shows her voice to its best advantage, and seems shorter than the other songs. Pretty.

11. Non-Religious Building---Sounds like The Who. Those guitars! Maria does a fine job as a Rock Opera Diva but some of these lyrics are cringe-inducing. It's a good song, if you tune out the rhyming of "sodomy" and "lobotomy" (huh?) but I admire her for taking chances with something so different.

12. Something Similar---Take away the horns and this could be on the "Shelter" CD. It has that sweeping, kind of dated sound. Not that that's a bad thing. Goes on that extra minute, though.

13. From Our TV Teens to the Tomb---Obscure lyrics which seem too deeply personal to make sense to anyone but the writer; the song is dated and seems tacked-on. Not a bad song, but not an easy one to get into right away. By now, I like it, but I've heard it a few dozen times. Most people won't give it that much of a chance, and I don't blame them. I usually don't, either.


14. Worry Birds---Again, this song could be the lead character's solo in a Broadway show. Edgy lyrics, lovely production, and Maria's voice is amazing here.

The album's main downfalls: the tendency to add too much of everything rather than trusting the purity of Maria's voice; too many lyrics that just aren't universal and don't give us much of an actual story.

The album's highlights: Maria's voice; her wit and her willingness to take chances; the crazy beauty of "Be My Joy," the brilliant "Life is Sweet," "Worry Birds," the radio-friendly "To the Open Spaces" and "In Your Constellation" (although neither will probably get much airplay, radio being what it is), the rock-meets-Broadway feel to so many of the songs.

So yes, it does take a lot of work to appreciate this complex record, and fans who loved the old days of Lone Justice will most likely be disappointed that Maria's changed so much. Let's hope that some of them decide to change along with her (although I totally understand the devotion to the old songs---if Maria had turned out 50 minutes of nothing but "Panic Beach" I would have been just as happy), and let's hope she makes some new fans in the process. I think younger fans who wouldn't dream of listening to an alt-country goddess but who are just now starting to get into their parents' old Bowie or Who records will like this. Maria's still got it; she just shook it up a little.

I have been a fan of Maria McKee ever since Lone Justice released their debut in 1985. She has an incredible voice and is terribly overlooked by the mainstream. She probably doesn't care about that though; she'd rather follow her own worst pretentions. Life Is Sweet was an artistic triumph. High Dive tries to be even more adventurous but fails. Too many of these songs sound underdeveloped. The arrangements are all over the map and are unfocused. Maria sounds like she's at war with this record. It's hard to tell who's pulling who--if she's leading the music or vice versa...or both. The first half has some decent songs. I really like "To The Open Spaces" and her remake of "Life Is Sweet/Afterlife" is even better than on the previous album. "In Your Constellation" is another winner, but by the time of "Non Religious Binding" the disc ultimately collapes under its' own weight. I'm a big enough fan that despite the unevenness of this record, I'm willing to forgive her. I'll continue to listen to this record and be both fascintated and puzzled by it.

I love Maria McKee. I loved Lone Justice. But I am finding 'High Dive' to be a mixed bag as an overall disk. Some stuff is great. Some stuff is just ok. Some stuff, I plain skip over. McKee and her co-producer Akin seemed to have thrown a bunch of stuff to the wall to see what sticks.

The opening track "To the Open Spaces" is great except for that damned whistling. It seems to be tuneless whistling and in all the wrong places during the song. It's horribly distracting. But I also really like "Be My Joy" and "In Your Constellation". "We Pair Off" is pretty good, but it could have ended about 1 minute before it actually does. It begins to break apart and ends badly.

I love the title track - which continues the theme of "Life Is Sweet". The opening horns on the former track are almost reminiscent of a Burt Bacharach song. Horns play a bigger part in this album than I thought were needed and it's another thing I find distracting. On some songs though, they work ("Love Doesn't Love").

"Love Doesn't Love" has got a good R&B vibe that McKee can pull off - but you can actually hear Annie Lennox really pulling it off. And that gets to a good point: McKee is an incredible songwriter, sometimes better than she is as a recording artist.

'Life is Sweet' (the album, not the song on this disk - which I saw no reason to re-record, as it adds nothing to the superior original) ranks up there as one of my favorite albums - and I would have liked to see something similar from McKee. But you don't always get what you want.

This isn't a bad album by any means. It just didn't meet my expectations. And who is to fault for that?

I remember the hype surrounding the first Lone Justice album back in the 80's. It took me a long time to listen to the entire album, but there was something about it that drew me in and made me a fan of Maria's voice and the songs. This continued through her first two solo albums; I enjoyed the changes in the music and found all of the albums most enjoyable.

That has really changed in "High Dive" -- I don't care for the album at all. Maria's voice is as beautiful as ever, but I just don't get into the songs. When listening I can't escape the feeling that all of the music was recorded elsewhere, and she's just singing on top of it; the emotion just doesn't come through. My wife commented that it sounded like a soundtrack for a Broadway musical or something; not bad in its own right but not what she (or I) in general want to listen to.

It's not likely I'll be playing this CD very much. I hope her next effort will be little (if anything) like this one.

I agree with much in the reviews below, which I found informative enough to put off buying this CD from a dearly loved singer for many months. In the end, I couldn't resist a chance to hear Maria sing new material, and much of what I regret after a half dozen listenings has been said by others. If you liked Lone Justice and/or the first two solo CD's more than Life is Sweet, you may well be disappointed by the music here. This may be a difficult piece of art much more sophisticated than her earlier work that I simply haven't studied carefully enough to appreciate. I think that's a little pretentious for pop music, though. The songs and arrangements do sound like Broadway show tunes, and there are probably a lot of Maria McKee fans besides me who are not especially fond of show tunes. I disagree with a reviewer who suggested that one of the songs sounds a lot like Lone Justice. The re-recorded version of Life is Sweet makes a good song that is otherwise out of print available, but the original version was recorded better, in my opinion. In general, the lyrics lean toward the morbid, bitter, and bleak, when they're coherent and comprehensible. I have no clue what some of these songs are even about and the arrangements, though often creative and original, can also come across as simply strange mixes of genres. Maria lowers her voice enough to sound like a David Bowie imitator on "Non Religious Building," and I think it's no coincidence that several of the reviews below mention Bowie, who also had a fondness for theatrical music. I agree with a reviewer below that the title track sounds autobiographical, but if that's the case, the verse about how she could have made it to the top if she'd been more ruthless is embarrassing. Maria McKee made it close to the top, and she's not the only singer with great talent who didn't enjoy all the commercial success they may have deserved and perhaps would have received if they'd made different choices or simply had better luck. It seems graceless to whinge about this 20 years later, even to a listener who thinks Ms. McKee's singing was one of the musical high points of the 1980's.

The production of this recording, unfortunately, buries her great voice in the mix. The first three times I listened to this CD on a fairly good car stereo, I thought Maria was singing softly, without much feeling, and that her voice must have aged to the point of not being able to belt them out the way she used to. It was only when I listened on an extremely high-end stereo at literally house-shaking volume that I was able to make out that same great voice singing with passion under the accompaniments. And that's what makes me keep listening to this CD. It's a pleasure to hear a favorite voice singing new material, even if that material isn't memorable; I don't think there's one great song here. In the end, if the French horn that accompanies the "playing my trumpet" line on "High Dive" is reminiscent of a Burt Bacharach song, I'd rather listen to Dionne Warwick use that sound with much more flair on a real Burt Bacharach song.

I'm glad to see this singer still performing, and still taking risks, even if her artistic direction is taking her away from my personal tastes. But if your tastes don't run toward Broadway, or if you are not an extremely die-hard fan, I would not recommend this purchase. As an extremely die-hard fan who wanted a complete collection, I don't regret buying the CD, but in the long run I imagine I'll be spending more time with Maria's earlier recordings.

I really wanted to rate this 3.5 stars.

Each of Maria McKee's solo records have been quite different from each other - sometimes making a drastic change as in the case of "Life Is Sweet." This record isn't as far out on the edge as that one, and in the process loses something.

While "Life Is Sweet" was an instant classic once you got past the jarring change in style, this record has a few gems, a few that I like well enough, but don't blow me away, and a few that I could just as easily live without.

The gems: "To the Open Spaces" (upbeat, toe-tapping), "High Dive" (slower and introspective lyrically, but not depressing - my favorite), "In Your Constellation" (another uptempo song; as someone else said, probably the most accessible song), "We Pair Off" (moderate tempo with moody strings and piano, beautiful harmonizing)

The so-so's: "Be My Joy", "My Friend Foe" (it sounds like two songs spliced into one; the second part is better), "Love Doesn't Love" (kind of a jazzy/gospel feel), "No Gala", "Something Similar" (starts off a lot like and has the same tempo as Lone Justice's "Pass It On")

The duds: "Life Is Sweet/Afterlife" (the original on the "Life Is Sweet" album is much, much better), "Non-Religious Building" (sounds like The Who doing a Talking Heads song), "From Our T.V. Teens to the Tomb", "Worry Birds"

A previous reviewer states that the songs seem to go on too long. With one exception (a couple too many repeats of "We all are collecting dust" on "Something Similar"), I don't agree. There could have been a couple of more elegant endings, however (e.g. "We Pair Off", "No Gala", "Be My Joy").

On a scale going from most Lone Justice-like to least Lone Justice-like, I would place Maria Mckee's records in this order: "Maria McKee", "You Gotta Sin To Get Saved", "High Dive", "Life Is Sweet." Your decision to buy this record depends on your expectations of the style of music and your tolerance of the departure from the Lone Justice sound.

In summary, this is an uneven record, but fans will like some of the songs. Non-fans may want to try a more accessible record like "Maria McKee."

To quote Kasey Kasem (about something else): Ponderous, man, ponderous. Over-produced, overly long tracks keep Maria McKee's long-awaited CD from settling into a groove. Instead, self-indulgent arrangements like "Be My Joy" and "From Our TV Teens to the Tombs" (eh?) defy listeners like me from getting through this CD. Me: I like the Maria McKee on the first Lone Justice Cd, "If Love is A Red Dress" and "You Gotta Sin to Be Saved," don't like the second Lone Justice Cd and "Life Is Sweet." Does that sound like you? If so, I bet you won't like "High Dive." Doesn't sound like you ... dunno how you'll feel about this one. I didn't "get" those recordings, and I certainly don't understand this one...

Maria Mckee breaks my heart. Over and over and over again. And with "High Dive" she masterfully takes me places that consistently surprise and unsettle. Maria has never made the same record twice. She's obviously not interested in being slotted by the record industry or music-buying public or for that matter producing careful and comfortable pop music that is sure to be played on your local ez rock station. Yes, her music challenges. Yes, her music occasionally frustrates and yes, her music inspires awe. Every single time. I urge you to listen to "Something Similar" on "High Dive". What a soulful and terrifying look at the very essence of our life on earth. Brings me to tears every single time I listen to it. "High Dive" is complex and melodic and jarring and full of magnificent production details unlike almost any other music being listened to today. In the end though, it is Maria's acute sense of what connects us all as human beings - the never-ending search for love and acceptance - that takes her music out beyond the heavens.

Pivoting off of the jaw-dropping brilliance of Life Is Sweet, Maria McKee proudly brushes off the major-label record industry and skips off into the sunset with another big album full of surprises. As time moves on, much of the predictable Lone Justice sound of her early years starts to not hold up so well. But this is a good thing because as High Dive shows, Maria McKee has talent to burn. If you are as passionate about this music as Maria herself is, you'll have little interest in going back to the You Gotta Sin To Get Saved days.
High Dive is certainly less focused than Life Is Sweet, but it builds on the rock-opera/broadway play moments that surfaced during the Life Is Sweet tour. "To The Open Spaces", "High Dive", "In Your Constellation", "Non Religious Building" and particularly "From Our T.V. Teens To The Tomb" are triumphant rock and roll blissed out golden moments that would make Pete Townshend smile. One can easily see a theatrical production written by McKee taking shape from these songs. It would have been nice to maybe have a few less songs on this collection, because sometimes it's easy to get lost amid the ambition. If you can excuse that, bring this little gem on a summer night's drive somewhere where you can safely drive over the speed limit. With the volume turned up just right, you won't be able to stop smiling.
If "Life Is Sweet" was McKee's masterpiece, "High Dive" is it's brilliant kid-sister who maybe didn't get enough attention growing up.
Leaving Geffen Records was the best thing that ever happened to Maria McKee. She is a treasure and the arc of the growth of her songwriting has been as exciting to watch as the careers of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.

"High Dive" is an uneven effort, one where Maria McKee the singer greatly outshines Maria McKee the songwriter. As a singer, Maria is a great vocalist who packs emotional wallop. Her band on this CD does a decent job of giving her support. However, the lyrics to this CD strain and come off as just plain odd rather than effective or creative. Maria appears to need some strong guidance to rein in the material. The disc sounds much better when you don't pay attention what she's singing. The opener "To the Open Spaces" has a buoyant feel with a great sense of freedom. "High Dive" sounds like she was channeling Burt Bacharach with somber lyrics juxtaposed to the lush melody. "Non Religious Building" is a bizarre anthem to suicide. "From Our T.V. Teens to the Tomb" has a busy theatrical melody but somehow needs a plot to support the lyric. This set has grown on me with repeated listening, but is still an uneven effort with hidden charms.