Customer Reviews

Unauthorized

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

 

 

This review is a comparison between "Sex Without Bodies" (the team's previous release) and "Unauthorized". I think the instrumentals are better on "Unauthorized". Horns seem to be used more prominently, especially to good effect on the first cut: "Dear Miss Lucy" (which reminds me a little of "Ned has a Big Dutch Wife" from "Sex without Bodies"). My favorite cut is "Won Gon Ju" which has the most humorous lyrics of any song on "Unauthorized". I enjoyed the up tempo cuts the best, including: the two already mentioned, plus "Lily 110-140", "Baby Who Are You?", "Voletta's", and "Kathmandu". All the other songs are of a slower tempo, and while interesting (especially the bizarre "Florida Time") they are not as entertaining as the up tempo tunes, to me. Kelly Flint's voice is made for these songs, and her singing is at least the equal of that in "Sex Without Bodies", perhaps better, maybe more polished. I think in general the lyrics were more clever and "hip" in "Sex without Bodies" but maybe I will apreciate them more after repeated listenings. The melodies, harmonies, and rhythms of the up tempo songs on "Unauthorized" are likewise equal to or better than those on the up tempo songs from "Sex without Bodies". I just wish there had been fewer slow songs or "ballads" on the new album. The recording itself is a wonder, suuperior to "Sex Without Bodies". Both recordings were made in St. Peter's Episcopal Church in New York, and the "hall" ambience is captured well on both albums. The overtones of the brass and woodwinds seem to be more realisticaly recorded on "Unauthorized". Chesky Records has another audiophile quality recording on its hands with "Unauthroized". While I will listen to "Sex Without Bodies" primarily for the Kelly Flint treatment of clever lyrics, I will listen to "Unauthorized" for the instrumental performances as well. And I might just skip over the slower tempo songs. Five Stars for the faster paced material and instrumentals, three stars for the slow stuff. I'll buy the next Dave's True Story CD sight unseen (or unheard). Their music is very enjoyable, entertaining, fun to listen to--when it is fast enough.

Dave's True Story was profiled in the Sunday edition of the New York Times just a couple of weeks ago. Between this article and what I had found of them on MP3.com, I figured I'd check 'em out. I'm glad I did.

The singer, Kelly Flint, described their sound as "beat lounge", and that seems pretty apt. Lyrically, it's quirky, adventurous, and humorous...intellectual without being overly pretentious. The arrangements are rather spare; you're not gonna get drowned in a wall of sound and you won't be jammin' to some sizzling guitar solo, that's for sure. The emphasis is definitely on words and voice.

Luckily, it's a good voice! No Mariah Carey-style histrionics or diva displays, but instead a deft, sweet touch. Ms. Flint can do the smoky stuff when required or go upbeat if need be, and she excels at following along the labyrinthine twists and turns of Dave Cantor's lyrics.

I especially liked "Dear Miss Lucy", "Kathmandu", and "China Tour". Great stuff!

If you're ready to listen to something that will really make you LISTEN, this is the album for you. Enjoy the word play and nimble sound, absorb the atmosphere...it's like going to a secret little jazz club, but without the cover charge!

Recorded in St. Peter's Church in New York, this CD brings forth a collection of original songs that brings an ageless re-birth to the meaning of "lounge Jazz". Making use of a smoky musical hue, combined with lyrics that read like a black and white film from the 40s this CD takes you back to a time and place when cynical thought was hip and still had its sense of innocence.

Combining 13 original songs by Dave Cantor, and the coolly laid back vocals of Kelly Flint along with a well placed sax or bongo drum mixes up a cocktail blend of "lounge jazz meets beat music" that has a touch of the avant-garde without ever losing its earthiness. By blending the ironic with angst, and wittiness with coolness, the songs on this disk travel to the past without ever leaving the present and, on songs like "Florida Time", a crime story gone awry, the listener has the feeling that they have entered a 1940s black and white crime movie.

One of the bigger standouts on the disk, "Chicks" is the only song in which Dave Cantor sings lead vocal, and if I have one complaint it is that he does not do more of this as his dry wit and droll delivery are in nice contrast with Flint's cool irony. In Cantor's hands, the dryly-witty "Chicks", a song not about the desire for love but for sex, becomes a song for every man who has been burned, spurned and cast off in his desire for just this one simple thing.

When all is said and done, this is a disk where understatement speaks the loudest. Kelly Flint may not have the biggest of voices on the jazz scene or the most flashy but then here it is not "size that matters" it is what you do with it that counts and Flint, with her understated sense of irony uses coolness rather than aggression disarming the listener with her frankness and sense of chic. Where many of today's singers seem intent on impressing with vocal acrobatics, Flint has a unique focus on the lyrics and musical line that is rare in singing today - one in which the listener is transported directly into the places where the songs are being sung. In songs like "When Kafka Was the Rage" she opens the listener up to an intimacy that is magnetic and frank with just enough angst to make it believable. "I Still Adore You" is an example of old fashioned balladry that in Flint's hands has the understated feel of a classic nightclub romance complete with couples dancing in close detachment.

With its simple arrangements, and simplicity of sound, the emphasis here is on the ambiance, and the result is a collection of songs that is laid back, hip, and smoky. Jazz fans, fans of the slightly eclectic, and of the off-beat won't be disappointed by Cantor and Flint's quirky outlook on life and may find themselves wishing they could be transported into Cantor and Flint's time and space as well.

This has quickly become one of my all time favorite discs. It's a marvel. The instrumentation and arrangements are fantastic. The recording, as always with Chesky, is top drawer. Ms. Flint's voice is just "to die for", and Dave Cantor's writing is everything everybody else has noted: hip, understated, clever, and ironic. It has been called "retro angst", and it is that. But, I think it's more, too. It's current social commentary. Not the kind that preaches or hits you over the head, and you don't need to find it to enjoy the songs; still, I think it's there, and proves that serious comment need not sound serious.

"Dear Miss Lucy" is a professional dominatrix. She's being asked "to set the poor boy free". The "poor boy" being the singer's (in the song, of course) husband. The wife ends up promising to do Miss Lucy proud by letting hubby sing under her own "black stilletto" rather than Lucy's. "Lilly-110-140" might properly be called the prozac cha cha. Its protagonist gets let off (after chopping up her analyst) with a "stern and judicious warning" from the judge and a ten year supply of prozac (Lilly-110-140) from his bailif. Then there's the unrepentant slasher doing "Florida Time" who, after ten years, can still taste his victim's fear; and "Baby, Who Are You?" is about waking up next to someone you no longer recognize (Billy Joel's "Stranger", anybody?). Last, but not least, where else in all of jazz/pop ("Chicks") are you ever going to find rhyming references to Homer (Circe, turning men into pigs) and Keats (modern "Belles Dames Sans Merci")?

This is one teriffic album. Highly recommended!

Wonderful rock (as stated above) that won't give you a migraine. You can play their music over and over and not get tired of it.
The only complaint I have is the talking number (Chicks) on this CD, in fact, that's my only complaint with their music. When the guy talks (not sure who it is, Dave or someone) it just disrupts the entire mood.

When I buy a CD for the music, I expect it to be ALL music.

As expected, Dave and Kelly offer up smoky, sexy vocals and quirky songs about love's more bizarre side, dark lust, and stiletto heels. I felt like I should be wearing something black and slightly kinky and have a Pink Belt martini in one hand and and a cigar in the other while listening to this cd. Everyone loves "Lucy" and her strange artistry and Dave's whisky-voiced rendition of "Chicks..." Kudos to this cool hipster duo for releasing this fun-n-flirty, sensual and sarcastic ride! And thanks to Vienna, VA-based coffee house Jammin' Java for bringing them to DC!

I first heard one of their tracts on the radio and decided to look them up. The instruments sound pleasingly simple and soothing. Kelly Flint's voice for me is "addictive", I love hearing her voice. I can understand all the words of the sometimes humorous songs and they don't all sound the same. Very happy with this CD.

This album is just as wonderful as Sex Without Bodies, with clever lyrics, pitch-perfect arrangements, and terrific music. Highly recommended.

I agree with everything the above reviewer says except what he said about the record label. In fact, it was the band who did not want to release the record and the label who said they should.