Mojave

Concrete Blonde | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Eleven Thirty
• ASIN: B0002ABU7K
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,207 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After venting some severely pent-up spleen on their 2002 reunion album, L.A.'s Concrete Blonde wander into the parched desert outback that surrounds their hometown for inspiration. But the fiercely independent spirit that's been the trio's evocative creative muse (yielding unlikely hits like "God is a Bullet" and "Joey)" leads them down some challenging gulches here. Kicking off with bows to electro-charged modern rock ("The A Road" and "Because I Can") whose arroyo-of-noise often blunts the band's twin trademarks--the ever-underrated vocal dramatics of Johnnete Napolitano and guitarist Jim Mankey's lean, haunting fretwork--they regain their footing somewhat on a slow, dreamy take on the Western chestnut "Ghost Riders in the Sky," then careen headlong into preachy eco-consciousness ("Coyote") and the title track's meandering, spoken-word indulgences. The wry wit and restless, dark energy that fuels the album's closing third is a welcome return to focused form, even if it underscores its unintended desert metaphor and moral: The vast Mojave has inspired much aimless wandering, yet few dare call it home. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

Concrete Blonde’s newest album "Mojave" provides a musical postcard from the edge of civilization, where lonely strips of asphalt wind their way through the coyote’s backyard. Now the denizens of the desert that gave the album its name, singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano, guitarist Jim Mankey and drummer Gabriel Ramirez, provide a soundtrack to the scenic Southwest. The desert’s strange beauty is reflected throughout "Mojave", from the shadowy, bass-driven opening track "A Road" to the sprawling soundscapes and ghostly vocals of "My Tornado At Rest." Spirit animals come crawling out of the arid night, with reptiles shedding skin in "Snakes" and Johnette explaining the mysterious desert dogs on "Hey Coyote." The specter-like quality of the desert’s night sky is also captured in a haunting cover of "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky," the old Western chestnut re-popularized by Southern rockers The Outlaws in the early ‘80s

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Remember when Johnette used to sing songs? I miss those days, January 9, 2005

By 

Paul O'Brian (Thornton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mojave (Audio CD)

I know that "I've been a fan of [artist name here] since the beginning, but..." is the Amazon reviews version of "I never used to believe these letters were real, until..." With me and Concrete Blonde, though, it's true. I've loved the band ever since "Dance Along The Edge" was getting regular play on MTV. The band I love combined gorgeous dark melodies with an uncompromising lyrical attack to create such fantastic songs as "Your Haunted Head", "Caroline", "Roxy", "God Is A Bullet", "Jenny I Read", "Happy Birthday", "Someday?", "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)", "Heal It Up", "Free", "Lullaby"... I could go on and on.

Unfortunately, such songcraft is in short supply on the disappointing new album MOJAVE. What we get instead is mostly lead singer Johnette Napolitano declaiming poetry in a low monotone a la Jim Morrison, leavened with the occasional sung chorus. A little of this kind of thing goes a long way, and MOJAVE has a whole lot of it. Some of the poetry is good, although some of it is wincingly bad, such as the image of a "healthy young male coyote" who is environmentalist enough to snarl in disgust at the litter dropped by a passing motorist, or the line "Well ya know he took it badly when his kitty died," complete with "Awwwwwww!" in the background. Sometimes it's not even poetry at all: "Hey Coyote" has Johnette reading what sounds like an encyclopedia entry in a gratingly sanctimonious tone. One of the few tracks that's musical enough to be called a tune and is actually sung all the way through is "Ghost Riders In The Sky" -- a cover, tellingly enough, of the old Stan Jones song. The minor-laden melody and spooky imagery fit Concrete Blonde perfectly, and the song is a highlight of the album, though it would be much better if it weren't slowed to the point of somnolence.

I'm not somebody who rejects an artist for taking a new direction or recharging the creative batteries. In fact, sometimes those departures can be some of the best work of the artist's career, like Fleetwood Mac's TUSK or Bruce Springsteen's NEBRASKA. The problem with this particular departure is that it just yields a very dull harvest. The songs range from pretty okay ("'A' Road", "Ghost Riders In The Sky") to downright dreadful ("Hey Coyote", "Jim Needs An Animal"), with not one track that's as magical as any of the band's best work. I would say that it feels like a collection of B-sides, except that Concrete Blonde's B-side anthology (STILL IN HOLLYWOOD) is one of my favorite records of theirs. It feels more like the noodling, half-finished tracks that sometimes get posted on the Concrete Blonde web site. These are cool and everything, but they're not album caliber. Here's hoping that MOJAVE was just an aberration, and that the Blonde's next album sees them returning to their former magnificence, or even going back to the perfectly satisfactory level of GROUP THERAPY. Maybe if they all moved back to Los Angeles...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A western gothic..., July 31, 2004

By 

jon sieruga (Redlands, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mojave (Audio CD)

Concrete Blonde is back, and while no skins are shed or true lives revealed, it is a very atmospheric album. Johnette Napolitano & Jim Mankey still work well together, turning the Yucca Valley skies into a black velvet painting and the desolate Southern California landscapes into burning melancholia. But is this the real Johnette? I can't tell if these songs are ripped from her heart or from a lime-soaked beer bash she had once upon a time in the desert. The cowboy cliches get a little thick(although I always thought she might do a decent cover of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", and she does), but the grooves are deep enough to warrant repeated, pleasurable listenings(which I couldn't say about the too-wicked "Group Therapy"). Too bad a more astute music editor wasn't aboard to help abort some of Napolitano's more pretentious leanings(and spoken word aberrations). The CD's best song, "True to This", is hurt slightly by Johnette's rushing of some of the lyrics(and apparently creating some new ones, throwing off the song's rythmn). "The 'a' Road" is a great, gritty opener and "Because I Can" shows there's still fire in this unit, whether their scenario now evokes Anne Rice in the desert or lonesome West Coast vampires sleeping in tumbleweed graves.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reverse Metamorphosis - Dark Butterfly To Desert Crawler, August 11, 2004

By 

Mark O'Connor (Rothesay, N.B.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mojave (Audio CD)

The first thing you notice is the CD cover, a complete departure from the clear images of the past. That's just the beginning.

On "Mojave" Concrete Blonde expand their musical palette. That's not to say they completely parted ways with their old tricks - check Jim's guitar sound and phrasing on their cover of Ghost Riders In The Sky for a taste of the classic Concrete Blonde sound. "Because I Can" is also the kind of fierce rock attack fans will instantly recognize, top drawer material with sharp hooks that dig deep.

It isn't apparent that big musical changes are afoot until the fifth song, "Hey Coyote". Johnette talks her way through the verses of this effective piece, singing a plaintiff chorus slathered in squeals of guitar that amplify the outrage of the words.

"Himalayan Motorcycles" follows - an atmospheric piece with washes of guitar and feedback spiced with a psychodelic vibe as suggested by the title and lyrics like "baby fishes... following their mama butterfly". A literal take on the song might be a desert drug trip, but it seems more of a meditation on the infinite mysteries of the universe, a reflection maybe of how the seeming nothingness of the desert can spark the imagination.

The title track is an evocative spoken word piece, poetic, very much like something Bruce Cockburn often does, to much the same effect. Musically it begins with a couple of guitar notes calling over a broken guitar chord that recalls House of the Rising Sun, and keeps its bluesy blood throughout.

The album's centerpiece comes next, the deliciously moody "Snakes". Shimmering gongs, creepy organ, percussive elements poking their heads at you at all turns, a terrific short bass hook, this is a slow thrill ride through the creepy desert night. A great vocal by Johnette.

Unfortunately the band decides to break the mood by following with the joke song, "Jim Needs An Animal". Think of a light piece of fluff in the middle of "Dark Side of the Moon". It's like they wanted to tell us not to take it too seriously... but man, it's the same as waking up from a great dream that's not finished.

"Someone's Calling Me" tries to delivers us back with a piece of space rock, though it's inner space that's being explored. It's somewhere between the old and new Concrete Blonde. This song is driven by a drum riff, something I can't recall the band doing before, and has a dancy element to it. I should add that Gabriel Ramirez Quezada's drum and percussion work is terrific throughout.

The plodding "True To This" is an out and out clunker, and "The "A" Road" is a mediocre funk number ("Fried" on Group Therapy is much better). Throw in (out)the aforementioned "Jim Needs An Animal" with that group. What you have left is a very good record that holds up over repeated listening. While some might lament the band's move away from the catchy fare of the past, "Mojave" is probably as good as anything they've done with the exception of "Bloodletting'. And the metamorphosis probably isn't complete.