Customer Reviews

The Living and The Dead

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sometimes there appears a voice heard on the periphery, and once you hear it you can only hear it again and again; it's like eating at the Bellagio Buffet, with all the style and variety there is no option but to consume more until explosion is imminent.

Such is the case with Jolie Holland. As with other alt-country sirens such as Neko Case, Holland is deliciously, completely captivating, particularly on her new album The Living and the Dead. Her voice is so full and nuanced that without careful attention to her lyrics one can and probably will hang on her every note like a shipwrecked Greek sailor.

More so than on previous releases, Holland raises the tempo on this album, making it more accessible for newbies. And though I am scrambling to recollect the milieu of her past releases, I can say that The Living and the Dead is more oriented toward rock `n roll than it typically would be a clever mash of blues, folk and country. Another reason why I favor L&D is the inclusion of some first rate guitarists such as M. Ward and Marc Ribot lending their talents.

As if Holland didn't already emulate the alt-country / southwestern genre at its most unique, this particular album cements her emergence. Mexico City, Corrido por Buddy, and Palmyra are immaculate, with Fox in its Hole and Your Big Hands as the other standout songs. Though quality, the remaining songs just don't reach the heights as the others, and thus the album as a whole is slightly incomplete for me; were a different closing song chosen rather than the more frolicky Enjoy Yourself, L&D would have been less anti-climactic and thus perfect.

Living & The Dead being Holland's 4th studio album and her 2008 release is yet another album that I picked up as a chance listen at my local library. The sound reminds me of Jewel and Sheryl Crow. Her lyrics are very witty and thought worthy. The booklet contains all lyrics, some quirky photographs and a list of whom plays what on each track. The album received good reviews when it was released and Allmusic and ChartAttack gave it 4/5 which is what I give it as well. 4/5.

This is Jolie Holland's most listener-friendly album to date. (And I love everything she's ever done.) She has emerged from the haunting darkness of "Springtime Can Kill You" to an exuberant, confident, rockin' masterpiece. I have been playing it continuously since I got it; I'm so grateful to have music like this to fall in love with.

I first heard "Mexico City" on a Paste Magazine CD sampler and absolutely fell in love with that song, from the opening, softly strummed acoustic chords, to the wonderfully original melody to the straight ahead, simple rock groove to the out-of-tune guitars to the low-fi-esq, almost garage band demo sound. When I got the album, though, I found some tracks to be a little weak like "Painted Yourself In" and "The Future" and I was a little irritated by her pretentious vocal affectations. But I soon discovered "Palmyra" and "Your Big Hands" and I found myself irresistibly drawn in and overcome by such wonderfully warm emotions that few, very few artists ever pull out of me. So, while I I skip over certain tracks (like "Painted Yourself In", "Fox In Its Hole" and sometimes even "Corrido Por Buddy", which is actually pretty good, its just the intro that annoys me), I find myself hitting the back button several times on tracks like "Mexico City", "Palmyra", "Your Big Hands", "Love Henry". And while I initially the seemingly amateurish poetry of the opening lines to "The Future" annoyed me, I found that I have grown to really like that song, especially the end lines, "Come on and wake up with." Goose bumps.

At first I was a little put off by the seemingly less unique sound of this CD. I was wrong. Yes, it's a little more accessible, but it has depth and keeps growing on every listen. She's truly one of the essential American artists of this generation. May she continue to write and sing.

the way that can be described is not the eternal way. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal name. The review that can be written is not the eternal review, but the duck call on this album may be the eternal duck call!

With The Living and the Dead, Jolie Holland continues to find her way towards normalcy yet still delivers a good, and at times great album. Springtime Can Kill You grew on me quite slowly over the past couple years, and I think that's where I'm at with The Living and the Dead.

The weirdest thing about this album is that it has her biggest stars to date (namely Marc Ribot and M. Ward) yet musically it's sometimes her most generic album. As much as I love some of these songs, they'd be even better were they brought to life via the bands on Catalpa, Escondida or Springtime.

Mexico City is the sonic equivalent of the American Traditional style of tattooing and Corrido Por Buddy most suffers from the band at hand. Palmyra is, for me, one of the premier examples of just how overhyped a guitarist Marc Ribot is. There is nothing here you've not heard before, which is a shame as in the past Jolie's albums have had singular moments in the history of American music. As much as I like the strength of some of these songs, their execution is generally much more common than Old Fashioned Morphine, Darlin Ukelele, Black Hand Blues, or most importantly, ALLEY FLOWERS, etc... or even Stubborn Beast, Crazy Dreams, etc... from the Springtime album...

...but then you get a song like Fox In Its Hole. Slow and drippy like electric molasses, it features Ribot's best playing (On a National, and still nowhere near what Bob Brozman could have brought to this song). With today's American climate, it's impossible for me to hear these lyrics and think of "honey" as a metaphor for anything less than consumerism, materialism and oil. If you ever saw the quiet, pained Come Early Morning with one of Ashley Judd's best performances, you'll be able to imagine Sweet Loving Man and The Future working perfectly within that story.

With Love Henry, if you have the required old-timey training you'll instantly recognize this song and/or the family of traditional tunes from which it comes. This is a highlight moment of her career, and on harp-guitar she delivers the best guitar playing of the album.

It may end up that of her 4 albums so far, this will be my 4th favorite. The darkened, modernistic pre-war country voodoo blues of the first 2 albums is gone but it still shows an artist of great emotional depth and evolving talents. Right now I think of it more in the realm of 3 stars simply because while Carla Bozulich grows deeper and more introspective (as on Hello, Voyager and Dandelions On Fire, I'll never understand why product links for this fantastic album are never an option though this site carries and sells it), Jolie keeps moving closer to normal. Still, I greatly enjoy this album. Experience has shown me that I always think more highly of her albums over time.

I think this is the best Jolie Holland album to date. Don't get me wrong - I love her slow, haunting ballads with just her and a guitar, but the rock and roll on this album is amazing and I can't stop listening. "Mexico City" starts the album off as a perfect opener and you know that it can only get better from there. The songs still have those haunting lyrics that she's known for (from "Palmyra": my little heart is a graveyard / it's a no man's land *and* I'll dance at your funeral if you dance at mine) but the tempo has changed. This is so good that I don't even know if I'll buy another album for the remainder of 2008.

To her credit, Jolie Holland is growing as an artist, and making good use of the admiration she's received from industry greats. That being said, I don't think this is her best effort. I'd put it at #3 in her catalog, behind the extraordinary Catalpa and the delicious Springtime Can Kill You, but ahead of the less certain Escondida. But this is also the closest she's come to a "rock" album, which might make it more accessible for some. And the production is excellent.

Of course, she still possesses a unique voice and can write lyrics with a twisted elegance reminiscent of Tom Waits. There's really no one else like her. Whether you like her or not, however, is your decision. If you're new to Jolie Holland, I'd recommend starting with Springtime Can Kill You, which is lovely and accessible. If you like that, get the difficult but amazing Catalpa, then this one. If you already love her, you should definitely buy The Living and the Dead as well! It may not be as glorious as some of her earlier work, but it's still well worth listening.

I like this CD very much. It's great to hear music that's off the beaten path when most people are trying to sound the same. My only issue though is her voice. It sounds like she's got a marble in her mouth. I don't know if this is a conscious effort to give it a twist but it's kind of annoying. It would be fantastic if she would just SING. The last song is a nice acoustic ditty outtake but there's some sort of private joke going on in the studio and she keeps giggling while she's singing. It kind of leaves me feeling left out. I think it could have been omitted. Other than that, thumbs up.