Maria Mckee [Import]

Maria McKee | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 19, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Geffen UK
• ASIN: B000000OZ3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,950 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

1989

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life for Maria after Lone Justice, August 12, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maria Mckee (Audio CD)

Three years after Lone Justice's second and last album, Shelter, lead singer Maria McKee stepped out on her own with her eponymous debut. She adds some more country tinge on some of her rootsy guitar sound, and still has that husky rock-country voice that is lilting soft on one hand, goes into an emotional crescendo the next, and even into a quasi-yodeling mode at times.

"I've Forgotten What It Was In You" veers towards country and features some nice strings. A very good opening song that sets her new material from the old.

There's a Bruce Hornsby-Dylanesque feel in "To Miss Someone", in which she plays a fragile, lonely woman going through the aftermath of an affair. "Nothing fits and everything feels wrong/I guess it's useless to deny it/I'll admit I've been crying/Guess I'm not so independent after all" she says in one verse.

OK, the moment I've been waiting for. Maria here was the originator of the wry "Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way) a full decade before the Dixie Chicks did it on their Wide Open Spaces album. When I heard it, I thought, "Hang on a minute, I know that song!" It's country-tinged like the remake but emotionally, Maria's original is more convincing, especially when she speaks of "a wound inside of me/...bleeding like a flood."

"Nobody's Child" features her lilting and lovely highest range. This might as well be the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" on this album, a sad ballad of comfort: "Take this veil/and I'll dry your eyes/In a world like ours/you're nobody's child."

"Panic Beach" is the oft-wry and humorous story of a singer telling the events of the happenings at a bar and the antics of the "vaudeville bums" and clientele, one of whom "don't sweat, she sours and melts like ice cream in the sun." Throughout it, the struggling protagonist vows to do her time and say goodbye to the title place, even saying "I may be hungry but my rent is free."

"Can't Pull The Wool Down (Over The Little Lamb's Eyes)" has a sound that recalls Lone Justice's "Belfry" from Shelter, but with country-ish backup singers.

Heartfelt country ballad time with "More Than A Heart Could Hold" which features a gospelish choir, and she goes into a searing gospel mode herself at one point. One of the better songs here.

The bluesy and country-like "This Property Is Condemned" sees seedy life through the eyes of a poverty-ridden girl in New Orleans remembering better days. "Breathe" is of the same kind, except it's a slow ballad.

Her cover of "Has He Got A Friend For Me" is a melancholy piano-only ballad of a wallflower, described as a girl who's clumsy and shy dying of loneliness on Saturday night. The line is a question the protagonist asks her girlfriend regarding her beau. Hearing the line "And nobody wants to know/anyone lonely like me" rang a jarring chord with me. Another poignant lyric: "He wouldn't notice me passing him by/I could be in the gutter/or dangling down from a tree." One of my favourites on this album.

"Drinkin' In My Sunday Dress" reminds me one of those rambling folk-country songs on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, wry and humorous: "My radiator growls like Elvis after Sunday dinner."

A big jump from Lone Justice's brand of roots-rock, Maria McKee's debut was the closest I came to buying country in my early days.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True beauty and Richard Thompson to boot., July 7, 2003

By 

Werno (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maria Mckee (Audio CD)

The woman can take you off-planet with her voice, write songs that drip with atmosphere and heart, and even make 'distressed roots' producer Mitchell Froom behave himself so that the focus here is on putting each song in a damn near perfect setting and performance.

Doesn't hurt that Brit guitar god Richard Thompson is laying down textbook tasty licks and heart-arcing solos all over the place (try 'Breathe' and 'This Property Is Condemned' for examples). Organist (Paul?) Brody shows how it should be done with his inventive and evocative textures. There aren't many albums I've heard where it all comes together better than here.

If you've heard the Dixie Chicks cover of Maria's 'Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)' buy this album to check out the real thing, in every sense.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maria McKee : She'll Grab Your Ears and Won't Let Go !, February 15, 2005

By 

Craobh Rua "Craobh Rua" (N. Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maria Mckee (Audio CD)

Born in LA in 1964, and having released two albums with Lone Justice, this is Maria McKee's first solo album. Released in 1989, and recorded in Hollywood, Dublin and London, nine of the eleven tracks were written solely by Maria. A tenth ("More Than a Heart Can Hold") was co-written with Robbie Robertson. Featuring, among other things, a Hammond organ and strings, the best description is country-rock with a slight bluesy twinge.

The album gets off to a great start with "I've Forgotten What It Was In You (That Put The Need In Me)". Despite the title, it's quite an up-tempo number that sees Maria fairly belting out the vocals. She puts in a similar performance on "This Property is Condemned", which also features a moody bassline and rock-n-roll-esque guitars. However, it's "Panic Beach" - another of the album's livelier songs - that I'd pick as the best track. It has a great tune, great lyrics and could easily have been subtitled "When Showbiz Goes Wrong". Sometimes, it does you good to hear a song like this !

There are a couple of more gentle songs on the album - "Has He Got a Friend For Me ?", the only song that doesn't see Maria with a writing credit, is a very good example. She also gives her backing band its only break for this track, and accompanies herself on the piano. Two of the songs that were released as singles also stand out : "To Miss Someone" shows just what a nice voice Maria has, while "Breathe" is one of the few songs where things actually seem to be working out !

There simply isn't a bad song on this album, and I can't understand why Maria McKee didn't become a huge success. She has a voice that can convey the mood of a song perfectly - hurt, need, calm or just generally fed up ! Highly recommended !