Customer Reviews

Mud

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

 

 

This is a quiet and well-made little record. Nothing revelatory and somewhat more conventional and less atmospheric than I expected. There isn't much gaslight old country and Appalachia to be found here - it's somewhat reminiscent of Joe Henry's "Scar." The first track is the least of the songs on the record but it builds from there. Balint at times sounds like Exene, but this works to her advantage, particularly on the songs that sound more like sketches. It will probably take 10 listens before anything on this records starts to repeat itself in your mind. Stick with it and you'll be rewarded.

For people in their late 30s or early 40s, Stranger Than Paradise was a great film that started the whole independent film movement. It was the reason why any of us wanted to do films or go to film school. Jim Jarmusch used to hit on Ezster Balint back when she was underage. Later he was still impressed enough to have her star in the film. It's much like sitting in your cold room in Williamsburg and smoking some dirt weed and watching Polish women walk by and admire them for their exotic otherness and cold distance. Balint is Hungarian (Remember that crazy dude in The Usual Suspects?) and a violinist. But in this second record she embraces Americana, much in the same vein as The Handsome Family and her buddy, Smokey Hormel. I guess that when you hit middle age you get out those bossanova records and old Nick Cave records and find your own voice. Balint is a great singer. Nothing on this record is remarkable. It's like in one of those creative writing classes where you are just trying to be competent. There are no faults, but nothing really shines either. Maybe in her live show Balint is able to convey more meaning and emotion. The song "Your God" oddly reminds me of the far better "My God" by Irish singer Gemma Hayes. Balint can bring out her cool friends on record, but maybe she would do better doing everything herself.

The answer is obviously yes when Eszter Balint asks, ''Do you like looking for trouble?'' at the beginning of her new album, ''Mud'' (Bar/None). Her songs are full of characters on the run: at least one murderer and a half-dozen others seeking escape, sanctuary, oblivion or ''the end of the trail.'' Ms. Balint, who was the star of Jim Jarmusch's film ''Stranger Than Paradise,'' has her own film-noir sensibility as a songwriter. Her voice is knowing and almost nonchalant as she drops hints and casts sidelong glances: ''Searching for a smoke and for your eyes/Where are they?''

Backed by a handful of musicians including her producer, J. D. Foster, Ms. Balint puts arty twists into back-alley Americana. A modal Appalachian banjo is interrupted by clanky guitar distortion; funky wah-wah guitar supports sleek vibraphone and shards of dissonance; folky fingerpicking adds shadowy echoes or slips into a bossa nova; a blues vamp skips a beat.

But the cleverness is not the point. Ms. Balint slips inside her characters to project their restlessness and longing, their disorientation and cunning. Just because she's gotten them into their predicaments doesn't mean she's not fascinated by what might happen.

I really like this record. It is a solid, interesting set, nicely put together, very musical, just the right arrangements and instrumentations. I first started following Ms. Balint when I saw her in a free Peter Sellars, Kennedy Center, production of Chekhov's "Seagull" that was mind-blowing. Like Marc Ribot, John Lurie, and later Tom Waits, it's what a grown-up, less self-conscious/pretentious "Velvet Underground and Nico" might have sounded like. It's not trying to be trendy or imitative, it is just a decent enjoyable record that has stood the test of time without becoming embarassing. More than you can say for a lot of other records from new artists from the same year!

I have a solid respect for Jon Pareles initial review, to my opinion he captures the essence of it best...

The answer is obviously yes when Eszter Balint asks, ''Do you like looking for trouble?'' at the beginning of her new album, ''Mud'' (Bar/None). Her songs are full of characters on the run: at least one murderer and a half-dozen others seeking escape, sanctuary, oblivion or ''the end of the trail.'' Ms. Balint, who was the star of Jim Jarmusch's film ''Stranger Than Paradise,'' has her own film-noir sensibility as a songwriter. Her voice is knowing and almost nonchalant as she drops hints and casts sidelong glances: ''Searching for a smoke and for your eyes/Where are they?''

Backed by a handful of musicians including her producer, J. D. Foster, Ms. Balint puts arty twists into back-alley Americana. A modal Appalachian banjo is interrupted by clanky guitar distortion; funky wah-wah guitar supports sleek vibraphone and shards of dissonance; folky fingerpicking adds shadowy echoes or slips into a bossa nova; a blues vamp skips a beat.

But the cleverness is not the point. Ms. Balint slips inside her characters to project their restlessness and longing, their disorientation and cunning. Just because she's gotten them into their predicaments doesn't mean she's not fascinated by what might happen.