Customer Reviews

The Sermon On Exposition Blvd. [Fold-out Digipak with 14 page booklet]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

thank you rickie lee for revealing the essence of creative spirit and holy spirit and revolutionary spirit and down-to-earth human spirit all at the same time (without being preachy or heavy-handed or lightweight). buy this recording and you get the ghosts of van morrison, the rolling stones, tom waits, nick drake, john cale, wilco and daniel lanois all married to a great magic flowing through the renewed spirit of rickie jones. recordings like this are few and far between. eventually, history calls them "essential." i have a strong feeling i'll be playing this one for as long as i live.

Two and one-half stars. I've been a fan of RLJ from her first single, but her albums have always fallen into one of two categories for me: the ones I play all the way through ("Rickie Lee Jones", "Traffic From Paradise", "It's Like This"), and the ones I take a song or two from for the Rickie Lee playlist on my iPod ("The Magazine", "Flying Cowboys"). "The Sermon" falls into the latter category. "Chuck E" aside, hooky pop ditties have never been RLJ's strong suit -- even considering that, "The Sermon" is a tough listen, and is only intermittently worth the effort. After several listens, I am still looking for the songs. I know you're not Avril Levigne, Rickie, but give me something to hang onto here! Her talk-sung sermonette on prayer, "Where I Like It Best", brings tears every time I hear it, on sheer force of emotional authenticity: she exhorts the listener to "take back" prayer from organized religion, to look up and shout "I'm down here, too! I'm down here, too!", and it's goose bump material. "Elvis Cadillac" is a funky hipster vision of the afterlife, and you can't help but smile. But those two songs and the occasional inspired line ("Riding into town on your donkey/But you're going out on a cross") notwithstanding, much of "The Sermon" is jangly accompaniment to a poetry reading.

Two weeks have passed and there is only one review of this cd since its release? Wow! I listened to the cd, watched the DVD and then listed to the cd again. The DVD/SACD version is not essential, but the cd is. In a few weeks I will be driving 120 miles to San Francisco to catch Rickie live. This is really good stuff. If there was any justice the track "Falling Up" would be getting lots of air play and would be one of the top singles on the charts. If you are a Rickie Lee Jones fan you absolutely must have this cd.

I can respect the artistic integrity of something and still not care to listen to it...Such is the case with this release. It sounds as if Rickie Lee Jones is channeling Allen Ginsburg (if he had stumbled into an evangelical meeting), backed by some teenagers having their third garage band rehearsal. The sound is raw, the melodies often sparse, and in short, nothing like you would find on something like "Traffic from Paradise". If free form grunge or religious theme experiments are your bag, knock yourself out, but for me, I'll put "Stewarts Coat" back on my stereo, wish I'd been more careful before I spent money on this, and wait for her next release.

Rocking harder than she ever has, Rickie Lee Jones heralds a career milestone with her new LP "The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard."

Deriving inspiration from her chum Lee Cantelon's book "The Words" (a modern rendering of the words of Christ), Jones has created an album that celebrates Jesus, humanity and the overall belief that we are guided by a higher power.

With no religious-affiliated agenda, she provides original opinions and observations. While they may eschew convention - this is light years away from conventional worship music - they nevertheless pave the way for a beautiful, stunning work of art.

Jones gets the ball rolling with "Nobody Knows My Name." When invited by Cantelon to improvise words over prerecorded electric guitars, he was delighted when she started to sing, and was speechless when he realized she was making up the words and melody on the spot:

"I felt like water in sweet gasps of hydrogen into the sea over the Bikini Islands/And I dove into the liquid concrete of sweet Silverlake/The liquid concrete of down by the river and nobody knew my name/Now I walk among them and I sing to them and I open up my wrists and nobody knows my name/And I translate into many hours of history but nobody knows my name."

For an artist better known for experimentation and nonconformity than pop appeal, it is surprising that such a thematic work contains her most radio-friendly song to date. Celebrating religious freedom for all, "Falling Up" is propelled by heady lyrics, soulful vocals, a killer set of musicians and, of course, a solid pop hook that is instantly memorable.

"It Hurts," an acute representation of what it means to be alive and human, also teeters along the commercial edge. Making the simple observation "It hurts to be here/When you're gone," Jones sings not just for herself but for all who have ever questioned the meaning of life and faith.

Elsewhere, the garage rocker "Tried to Be a Man" seethes with angst, complete with biting political and social commentary that recalls the themes of her epic 2003 LP, "The Evening of My Best Day." Meanwhile, "Lamp of the Body" is spare and ethereal in its examination of supposed piety.

"Circle In the Sand," with its exploration of base human nature and inherent dissatisfaction ("Time to go home/Dream the dream of the homeless/Cast the spell of the innocent hungry and poor"), benefits from a rawer, looser edge than the version appropriately used as the soundtrack theme to the 2006 film "Friends With Money."

The most notable track, however, is "Where I Like It Best," a spoken-word anthem for those who worship a higher power but find no comfort in organized religion:

"When you pray, pray alone and by yourself/In the secret room of your heart/Don't go out into the church filled with people and pray/God hears every secret that you say/See all those people praying on TV and in the churches/They like to make a big parade out of what they're doing/They think God hears them louder if they say it/Over and over and over and over and over again."

There are also moments of doe-eyed hope and even levity. "7th Day," is as gentle as a lullaby, finding a calm, soothing Jones crooning "There is no tear that is stronger/Than the faith that's in your eye/We can make another world, another life."

Also, "Elvis Cadillac" finds a rewarding existence in a heaven where Janis Joplin has a job at the corner bar.

"The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard" finds Jones more inspired than ever before. It is a godsend for open-minded individuals seeking a unique religious experience. Taken simply as a quality album from an underrated trailblazer -one who paved the way for the Sheryls and Fionas of our generation - it stands just as tall.

Loved Rickie's music up until Flying Cowboys. Ever since it just gotten darker and darker. Tryed to listening to Exposition but it was torture. I'm not looking for pop music but am fully aware of how she can produce much more upbeat Jazzy influenced material. May she find these uplifting sounds once again.

I always considered Rickie to be a rawer Joni Mitchell. As Courtney Love is a rawer Madonna. But too often she seemed unfocused and distracted.

On this one Rickie shines! This is the high mark of her career so far. Through all the drug hazed days and aimless wandering she's seen the light.

If you never listen to another Rickie album, at least give this one a try.

Falling Up is the song I can't get out of my head.
It Hurts and Elvis Cadillac are other catchy pop tunes.
Nobody Knows My Name and Gethseme are haunting tunes.

I was intrigued to hear her interpretation or inspired product from "The Words" . . . . I've spun it twice and I like it. . . . I don't "love it" yet but I might.

I've great respect for her work, this is different, very much more "rock" than any other of her projects. . . .But still very characteristically Rickie Lee, if a more mature and perhaps austere Rickie Lee. . . .

This album is a remarkable piece of work. As a minister in a mainline Protestant congregation, I am well aware of the extent to which countless thoughtful people are put off by organized religion of any stripe or description. Their antipathy is often well justified! The tragic result, alas, involves the resultant loss of the provocative and deeply challenging teachings of the master: Jesus of Nazareth. Rickie Lee Jones has measured up to the task of representing and responding to those teachings with remarkable skill, passion and freshness. I have no idea what drew her to this project, but she has managed to achieve, in the length of one Compact Disc--and with the help of a brilliant group of accompanists--what some of us preachers spend our "professional" life-times attempting (and not always succeeding!) at accomplishing. For those who find the "words" of this album obscure or self-indulgent: listen again, this is a work that does not necessarily reveal its full depth at first contact. For those who find the music edgy and jarring: it is the refusal to "prettify" these pieces that makes their cumulative impact so devastating and so right. Highly recommended!

The origin of Rickie Lee Jones' latest album The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard comes from writer Lee Cantelon's interpretations of Biblical passages. And while Cantelon still shares co-writer credits for much of this album's tracks, Rickie still does a great job of turning them into her own songs.

Very few of the songs actually seem to carry a spiritual vibe, however; the only ones that really seem to are "Gethsemane", "I Was There" and "Seventh Day". But those are still great songs, and there are plenty more standouts like "Circle in the Sand", "Nobody Knows My Name" and "Falling Up". Rickie also still has a unique way with her lyrics, as illustrated by "Elvis Cadillac" (which shows remembrance of deceased musicians) and "Donkey Ride". And "Road to Emmaus" is a nice instrumental.

Rickie has always had an unconventional style (lyrics AND vocals), so if you're not a fan of hers, you'll probably say that she can't sing. Even so, "Tried to Be a Man" is hard for me to get into. But everything else on here makes this a sermon worth listening to, so in the words of track 6, having this CD in my player is where I like it best.

Anthony Rupert