Customer Reviews

Moonswept

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Roches' first album as a trio in over a decade (baby sis Terre having gone mysteriously AWOL following 1995's Can We Go Home Now) is a triumph. Though all three sisters continued to make beautiful music in solo albums, projects with other musicians, and in particular Suzzy and Maggie's "Zero Church" and "Why the Long Face" albums, for those of us who have loved the Roches since their 1978 eponymous debut album, they all smelled like side projects. "Nice", we'd think, "but when's Terre coming back?"

Well, Terre is back; and maybe it's just that I really, really missed those shimmering three-part harmonies for all those years, but this may well be the girls' best album since the late '70s. Time has frosted Maggie's hair, but apparently left no mark on the sisters' voices. Their crystalline vocals soar above their trademark ringing guitar work (gone the electric keyboards of the '80s albums), and it's like the past three decades never happened. And there is scarcely a song here (mostly penned by Suzzy and Terre) that isn't a gem.

But while Moonswept is a very good album, it's not a perfect album. For me, the cover of the Ames Brothers' "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" (one of the first songs the sisters ever sang together, and a long-time staple of their live shows) is a throw-away. If they were going to pull one out of the vaults, I'd have preferred "The Clothesline Saga". And while Suzzy's daughter, Lucy has a lovely voice, and her song ("Long Before") is a pretty one, this isn't her album and I could have done without this number. Maggie only contributed to the writing of two of the songs here, leaving the album a bit heavy on novelty songs, from the utterly delightful "Huh" (three minutes of nervous stammering set to music), to "Naughty Lady", to NYC songwriter Paranoid Larry's "No Shoes" and "Jesus Shaves" (both of which start out fun, only to wear out their welcome just a bit by the end). Moonswept would have benefited from a "One Season" or "This Feminine Position".

But I quibble. Moonswept is an eagerly awaited return to form for long-time Roches fans. In a better world, one could hope that this album might finally earn Maggie and Terre and Suzzy some of the mass recognition they have so richly deserved for so very, very long.

From the opening verse of "Us Little Kids" there is no doubt the sisters Roche have returned in fine form. Despite a long sabbatical in which each of the individual sister pursued musical projects that didn't quite add up the sum of their work together, we now have the real thing. All three Roche sisters who stoop to conquer with their resplendent choir girl harmonies and all of their endearing quirkiness.

The Roches were always the delightfully out sync with the prevailing musical zeitgeist. In the late Seventies when New York was a crossroads of punk rock, funk, garage band retro, and musical experiments that fused multimedia performance art with electronic music, the Roches won our hearts with their crystalline harmonies and the tongue in cheek sassy feminism of songs like "The Married Man" and "Pretty and High."

In hindsight it's hard to imagine neo-folkies like the Roches sharing the same bill at CBGB's with the Ramones, Lydia Lunch's 8 Eyed Spy, the Fleshtones or Arto Lindsey and John Lurie's edgy "fake jazz" project the Lounge Lizards. You would have had to been there in 1980 for any of it to make any sense, but the Roches managed to charm the bottle throwing slam dancing fans who went to CBGBs to see the Contortions and ended up falling under the spell of the sisters Roche. The Roche's name had enough avant-garde cachet to attract a musical icon like Robert Fripp to produce their debut album.

After a 12 year silence, long after most fans thought they ever would reunite, the Roches have returned, not with a throwaway album as an excuse for a reunion tour, but arguably the best album they've ever made.

"Moonswept" consolidates all of their musical strengths and sheds some inconsistency of their middle and late year albums.

The overly self-conscious precociousness of the Roches' early work has faded, to their advantage.

One can only seem overly clever and mature before one's years while one is still young. The Roches are doing us a service by losing their precocious edge, as even Suzzy the eternal kid sister of the Roches finally turned 50 last September.

The Roches have crossed the meridian of mid-life with all of their youthful exuberance intact, and pulled off their nearly impossible act of aging in a graceful manner.

Who would have thought the Roches could summons the magic of their seductive charms so far beyond the bloom of untarnished youthful beauty?

The elegant wordplay of their lyrics and the exquisite mind blowing vocal pyrotechnics that have become the Roches musical trademark have survived intact as if they placed their exquisite talents in a time capsule in 1995 after they completed their appropriately titled farewell albumm "Can We Go Home Now?"

The answer to their question is, "No you can't go home now, because the fun has just begun.

The Roches' songs have always preached the Christian gospel of love and forgiveness in a very secular guise, and Moonswept is their most beguiling and poetic recording to date. They've mostly ditched the sometimes-impenetrable quirkiness and focussed on heartfelt songs of being alive and human: Jesus Shaves is not, as the Amazon review would have it, about Jesus, but an allegory of the Christ within all of us; the unsung, unrealised heroes who simply get on with their mysterious lives as best they can (do I need to add I'm no Christian but am in awe of this sentiment?). Some of this music is so exquisite it makes me cry, particularly the eerie Family Of Bones and the regretful yet ultimately proud Instead I Chose. Overall, it's a late-period masterpiece of delicacy and purity, something only experienced artists can create. Sometimes great truths can only be heard when whispered, and the Roche sisters are masters.

It's so GOOD to have the Roches back, all three singing together again. Although they sound wonderful in pairs, nothing but nothing compares to the three of them...it's the stuff of goosebumps.

The standout on this recording for me, if there has to be one, is Terre, who is in very fine voice. When I first heard "September 11th..." I was amazed. When I heard it again, I cried. It is pure poetry, a perfect song from a voice at its peak. "Family of Bones," "Moonswept," "Instead I Chose," "Us Little Kids," this cd is filled to the brim with lovely and loving music.

An essential Roches record. Easily their best effort since "Speak." Gone are the synthesizers and session players. Here the sisters shine vocally, lyrically and musically. The mark of a classic recording is the one that grows on you upon repeated playings. Moonswept does this in spades. Welcome back sisters!

With a welcome return to warm instrumentation, poignant and wizened songwriting, producer Stewart Lerman's most subtle and tasteful mix ever, bits of Paranoid Larry's mania, a daughter's precious cameo, and those incomparable harmonies..."Moonswept" is a gem. Your head will tell you that it's a milestone for the Roches, but your heart will tell you it's a gift for us.

It's been 10 years since "Can We Go Home Now", the last time all three Roche sisters made an album together. While their various solo and duo (Suzzy & Maggie) albums have been great (espically "Zero Church"), nothing compares to hearing all three harmonize and play together. Thankfully, they still sound wonderful and have lost none of their charm or wit. "Moonswept" will please any fan of The Roches - - I just hope they don't wait another 10 years for it's follow-up! If you ever get the chance to see them live, please do. Their live shows are always extermely entertaining. Also, the last song on the album is "Jesus Shaves", not "Jesus Saves" (as Amazon has listed).

A real return to form. The word that comes to mind is "focused". The singing is crystal clear and beautiful, the songwriting solid, the acoustic guitars crisp and agile. Production-wise, you will not find the synthesizers and big drums that crept into some of their later albums. More the Fripp-era style that shows the sisters at their best. Their wacky sense of humor is intact in "No Shoes" and "Jesus S(h)aves". They even dip into a delicious jazz sensibility on one of the songs. This album is guaranteed to put a smile on your head.

Moonswept is a magnificent step forward and backward and perfect. Any former fan of the ladies is sure to enjoy this as much as their very first release and those that followed. However, this is the first Roches recording since the first one that may be heard by a first time Roches listener and be appreciated from the beginning to end. I am so glad to have the three of them together again. Their solo and duo recordings are all good---but none are as significantly elegant as this--their first together in many years. Long live the threesome--may they record again and again. I'll be there to listen and appreciate. Starting the Moonswept epic with "Us Little Kids" is genius. First time listeners will be hooked by the pathos of the lyrics and the beauty of their combined voices and be open to the rest of the songs. Come on people---buy this---buy it now---you'll thank me--thank yourself and become an honorary Roche at the same time. Join the family and enjoy!!!

There's hope for the world as long as the Roches keep making music. The genius sisters (sort of not really gone but never, ever forgotten) offer a special album for these odd times. Artistically mature, fun and thoughtful, this album will make them many more fans and will keep the die-hard ones begging for more. More please...Don't "stop performing"...EVER. Thank you.