Customer Reviews

White Flags of Winter Chimneys

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So - how does one introduce Wendy & Lisa?

Former members of Prince's Revolution? True. Secret musical Illuminati? Definitely, if you count working with everyone from Seal to Soul Coughing, the Revolution to Bill Rieflin, Joni Mitchell to MeShell Ndegeocello, not to mention lil side projects with folks like Eric Clapton and Erykah Badu.

You may think you don't know them, but you know their music. Seal's "Kiss From a Rose," comes on the radio? Singing along to k. d. lang's Invincible Summer? Watching Heroes and getting creeped out by the magnificent score? Yep - you're soaking in it.

I'm one of those geeky fans that likes all that. But I'm ultimately more interested in evolution than Revolution - which is why their albums as Wendy & Lisa are so intriguing to me. The first three albums emerged in a rapid post-Revolution fire of Wendy & Lisa (1987), Fruit at the Bottom (which, released in 1989, ought to be their "Mortified" entry), and Eroica (1990) -- the latter of which neatly presaged everything that you'd hear in every Lilith Fair artist in the wake of its release, but was released just too early for its time. Due to some mix-ups with producer Trevor Horn, and the shelving of the 1994 (so called) Friendly Fire recordings, another album wasn't released until 1998.

And that's when true evolution began. Released in the wake of Jonathan Melvoin's overdose (while on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins), 1998's Girl Bros. is a self-produced song cycle of love and loss - more raw, minimally produced, and mature than the labels were willing to put out previously.

After ten years of scoring and sidework, Wendy & Lisa have finally released a new album. And this one is . . . dare I say, evolved? Digging deep into the dirt of life -- including the breakup of their own romnatic relationship -- Wendy & Lisa have released an album that brings together their immense musical talents with a strong, solid knack for songwriting. The last few years of scoring (particularly on Crossing Jordan and Heroes) have translated into a strong new talent for narrative songwriting. More than any of their previous work, White Flags of Winter Chimneys is written as a full arc, opening with the tender, warm "Balloon," carrying through the summer punk of "Salt & Cherries [MC5]" and "Niagra Falls" and then slowly back again in a cycle of loss to the almost-but-not-quite-shark-jumping orchestral "Sweet Suite".

Beautiful. Mature. Thought provoking. Evolved. Words can't recommend it highly enough.

It ceases to amaze me that Wendy and Lisa is still not being given the recognition they completely deserve.

Yes, they are the women from Prince's Revolution. However, more impotently these women need to be seen outside of Prince's shadow.

They are both incredibly talented musicians who can write music outside of the notes, chords, and time signatures. They are not formula churning musicians and never have been.

Wendy and Lisa create musical textures. Textures you can feel and embrace. Their music has a way of pulling you in, and wanting more. They are always looking for different tones, textures and ways of creating embracing layers to bring the listener into the experience.

Wendy and Lisa are the most versatile artists I have ever encountered. They have released five albums, none of which sound anything like the other, yet still carry a similar intangible theme throughout each of them.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys is an album which to me carries atmospheric themed melodies augmented by rich layers of pianos, keyboards, vocals, acoustic and electric guitars. The rhythmic and percussive layers create an additional depth of steadiness to help keep the listener grounded while listening to the hypnotic melodies.

This album also has songs which makes your want to roll down your windows to let all around you hear!

You will be carried through all the raw emotions of love lost, defiance, perseverance, forgiveness and love found.

There is an old adage that states: "Good things come to those who wait". This adage is only half-correct in describing my White Flags of Winter Chimneys experience. I HAVE waited patiently for the past 10 years for a new Wendy and Lisa album. However, my patience was rewarded not with something merely `good' but rather with a musical experience that was truly `GREAT'. White Flags of Winter Chimneys marks the 5th album release by the dynamic musical duo Wendy and Lisa.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys takes the listener on a journey through balloon rides, break-ups, yearning, anticipation, down Niagra Falls, and ends back at the beginning. Beautifully made, this album features some of Wendy and Lisa's best work to date.

One of the best qualities of White Flags lies in its unpredictability. The opening song `Balloon' is a dreamy ballad, sung by Lisa Coleman, with melodies as seemingly buoyant as the balloon described in the lyrics. The next song, `Invisible', is the antithesis of `Balloon'. The softly sung light-hearted lyrics of Lisa during `Balloon' are replaced by the angry, boastful disparagements sung by Wendy Melvoin during `Invisible'. Throughout the album, Wendy and Lisa expertly oscillate not only between music tempo but also between lead singing duties. This album features the greatest number of songs lead-sung by Lisa Coleman to date. Despite the fluctuating tempos/lead changes, Wendy and Lisa skillfully segue from one song to the other so that the album does not `feel' like a series of disconnected songs, rather, the album `feels' like one continuous musical journey.

In addition to the awesome song transitions, the album contains the complex multi-layered melodies that are a testament to their superb musicianship. Songs such as `Niagra Falls' and `Sweet Suite (Beginning at the End)' keep you guessing as to how many instruments are being played, what they are, and where Wendy's guitar ends and Lisa's `grunge' guitar sounding keyboarding begins.

Highlights of the album include `Salt N Cherries (MC5)'; an explosive rock anthem that is sure to get some part of your body moving, `You and I'; a captivating acoustic piece with incredible lyrical imagery, and `Sweet Suite (Beginning at the End)'; a song that features heart-breaking lyrics about missing a former love that breaks into an equally heart-breaking instrumental.

Listening to White Flags of Winter Chimneys is like looking into a beautiful seashell; you can spend hours analyzing its multi-layered patterns, its rich and complex color schemes, and its overlapping textures - only to realize that you have barely scratched the surface of its beauty. This album is truly a `must have' for Wendy and Lisa fans as well as fans of great music!

The day I received my vinyl, I was blown away. I am old enough to have a vinyl collection, and have seen a great deal of this medium growing up, but never have I seen such a radiating piece of artwork. Every detail imaginable for a vinyl has been considered for "White Flags of Winter Chimneys".

The weight of this plate is a DJ's dream there is no chance of warping with this 180 gram baby.

Wendy and Lisa are not only serious about their music and production; they are also serious about the release of the product's medium. Everything from their vinyl to their FLAC downloads tells you, these women want you to hear every nook and cranny of their work.

This vinyl contains both form and substance. A class act all around!

In their 2 decade plus solo career as a duo, Wendy & Lisa seem to have no end, only a new beginning with every wonderful work. They've played, written & produced with dozens of artists (if you've listened to almost anything musical since 1987, you've probably heard their work or influence). They've responsible for award winning Film & TV scoring including the NBC hits "Heroes" and "Crossing Jordan", along with the upcoming "Nurse Jackie" for Showtime, and "Virtuality". Most artists who've reached this level in their careers would be content to continue on auto pilot into the sunset, but not these two. Thanks in part to last year's Writer's Strike, the pair found time to give a wonderful gift to the fans & admirers who have eagerly awaited a new release. "White Flags of Winter Chimneys", the duo's fifth album, is a mature, living, breathing work of art; a masterpiece that simile, superlatives & metaphor only scratch the surface in describing. Words are all I have here, so here we go.

Moving beyond their prominent & very influential roles as "the girls in the band" of Prince's Revolution in the mid 80's, Wendy & Lisa have proven themselves time & again to be masters of both their artistry & their craft; "Musician's Musicians" with a resume that reads like a who's who of late 20th Century musical legends & innovators (BB King, Eric Clapton, Seal, K.D. Lang, Pearl Jam, Rob Thomas, Nerina Pallot, Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow, Michael Penn, & Neil Finn, to name a few). Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman have succeed in transforming life & loss, heartache & hope into a tangible force. Sound that is solid in it's texture & weight, fluid in it's rhythm & depth, and as essential as air, meant to be taken in as nourishment for the soul.

This is the second album the two have released on their own, the first being 1998's "Girl Bros", which dealt with the loss of their brother, Jonathan Melvoin, along with the evolving complexities of their own relationship. 10 years later, "White Flags" finds the ladies able to reflect on breakup without jaded bitterness, even when exploring that manic, ego driven conceit as it flows through the song "Invisible". With a sound of Orbison meeting Lennon somewhere between the ballroom and CBGB's, "Invisible" shifts emotions, time signatures & personage with expert ease. "Those years were mine, and I made us greater than our time...No light's are on you now, that is unless I'm near...Shine Shine Shine ..Like when you were mine" Wendy purrs & declares. Is there cause for purple suspicion here? Is this a reflection one finds in the mirror? Perhaps both. Before "Invisible" showcases Melvoin's vocal bite & prowess as a one woman rhythm section, we're wrapped in the womb of the equally Lennonesque album opener, "Balloon". "Nestle near a willing ear..." the pair breathes, as Lisa's warm, reverberant vocals & keyboards envelop & soothe. "Here in my balloon, nothing's ever scary..." The seeds of this song in particular may have been planted during Lisa's pregnancy with her now 2 year old daughter. Spanning chaos & creation in just two tracks with 7 more, equally powerful gems to go, the album flows in a moody atmospheric mode, but is never maudlin or dull. It's impossible to be dull with rockers like "Salt & Cherries", which manages to name check the seminal group MC5 & serves as the most sexually charged song the duo has released to date. This track is where the racing chase pulse of "Akira" meets the femme-noir seduction of "Bound". The ping pong of lead vocals duties between the two on the first half of the album is a subtle but beautifully crafted decision, one of many throughout. The duo, both mothers, carry the birth allusion to its conclusion as Lisa sweeps us through the undertow water break of "Niagara Falls" (Fans who purchased the album directly from their website can listen to the early demo of "Niagara Falls" and witness it in its beautiful, quiet embryonic form).

What's most amazing on the surface is that the dense and rich sounds of the album are played entirely by Wendy & Lisa. However longtime fans have come to expect this from these two master multi-instrumentalists, who in their own words play "anything as long as we can get a tone out of it" "Suite Sweet", the final track of the regular release (there are 4 bonus tracks on the digital download version available exclusively at [....]) displays pure craftsmanship in the shaping of art & inspiration. Evoking Aaron Copeland, Kate Bush, The Cocteau Twins, Radiohead, Jane Sibbery, & Joni Mitchell (whose 1976 song "Hejira" provides the album's title), the nearly 9 minute "Suite" is exactly that. The composition cycles from sparseness and delicate, damaged lyrical emotion, to swell into a instrumental reprise of "Balloon" in theme & variation. Piano & guitar then soar in an electric tidal wave of sound, coming to rest as stately & quietly as it began.

It's almost impossible to pick a "favorite", because every song is just that good. Other standout moments include "Red Bike" with a Neapolitan melody that is the precious fine china of memories, fragile & forever treasured; and "You & I" which features some of Wendy's most beautiful vocal & acoustic work to date, wrapped in gorgeous electric sonics. Lyrically, "You & I" echoes the Yin/Yang themes of birth & death, resignation & renewal, that form the album's emotional motif.

The entire album has a rich, symphonic, cinematic feel, certainly bearing the influence of their scoring work of late. What has to be noted is that Wendy & Lisa have always created, or shifted, the feeling, mood & atmosphere of anything & everything they've blessed with their talents. Theirs is a rare gift, & "White Flags of Winter Chimneys" is the gift that will never stop giving. Try it & see for yourself.

It ceases to amaze me that Wendy and Lisa are still not being given the recognition they completely deserve.

Yes, they are the women from Prince's Revolution. However, more impotently these women need to be seen outside of Prince's shadow.

They are both incredibly talented musicians who can write music outside of the notes, chords, and time signatures. They are not formula churning musicians and never have been.

Wendy and Lisa create musical textures. Textures you can feel and embrace. Their music has a way of pulling you in, and wanting more. They are always looking for different tones, textures and ways of creating embracing layers to bring the listener into the experience.

Wendy and Lisa are the most versatile artists I have ever encountered. They have released five albums, none of which sound anything like the other, yet still carry a similar intangible theme throughout each of them.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys is an album which to me carries atmospheric themed melodies augmented by rich layers of pianos, keyboards, vocals, acoustic and electric guitars. The rhythmic and percussive layers create an additional depth of steadiness to help keep the listener grounded while listening to the hypnotic melodies.

This album also has songs which makes your want to roll down your windows to let all around you hear!

You will be carried through all the raw emotions of love lost, defiance, perseverance, forgiveness and love found.

What an amazing album that we have all been waiting for , such deep & dreamy solid songwriting that they really spent some time on , unlike a lot of todays artists .
It's also a great sounding album , really deep , moody with a lot of feel , anyone who has liked wendy & lisa in the past is gonna love this one , it's the best stuff they have ever done , I can;t say enough about how great this album is , Pick it up now & extra points for pressing it on quality vinyl ~~~ Stunning ! ~ DavidK~

In today's "music digital age" it is rare for artists to look beyond the music and pay attention to the packaging of the product as well. In the not-too-distant past, album covers and album artwork could garner more excitement and admiration than the music contained within. When so many people merely download music from the internet, it is easy to forget that music used to be, not solely an audible experience, but a visual one as well. For those of us old enough to remember, we would sit around the record player and marvel at the exquisite artwork on the album cover and relish in the lyrics and liner notes inside the gatefold. Listening to an album was truly a multisensory experience that is coming closer to extinction with each digital download.

Fortunately, Wendy & Lisa have reminded us what a beautiful multisensory experience music can be with the release of the LP version of their most recent album, `White Flags of Winter Chimneys'. This is simply an amazingly beautiful album that should be a collector's item for all lovers of good music and of good craftsmanship. First, the album is 100% Virgin Vinyl and weighs in between 180 and 200 grams! The greater weight ensures better durability, feel, and stability on the turntable. Second, the album itself is absolutely gorgeous (the pictures above only convey a fraction of the album's true beauty)! The record is a beautiful color splatter of white, blue, and black that mirrors the feel of the cover and inside artwork. The album art was done by the famous graphic designer Rex Ray. The cover features a beautiful photograph of a hand (not a glove) that has been fractured by light.

The album is a GATEFOLD that also features a Rex Ray photograph on the inside-left of the gatefold as well as the song lyrics on the inside-right of the gatefold. The album sleeve mirrors the cover art except there is a picture of Wendy & Lisa in the forefront. The back of the album sleeve contains the album credits and liner notes written by Lisa Coleman. The liner notes are very honest and sensitive and explain what Wendy & Lisa have been through since the making of their last album (Girl Bros.) as well as how this wonderful opportunity to make another album came to fruition.

It is obvious that Wendy & Lisa took special care to create this album, both musically and physically. The vinyl, artwork, and liner notes all prove that Wendy & Lisa are not solely concerned about making good music. Unlike other artists, they look beyond the music in order to give fans an experience that is pleasing to the ears, to the eyes, to the mind, to the heart, and to the soul.

If your purchase this album, you will not be getting only an amazing piece of art in the form of beautifully crafted Virgin Vinyl. Rather, you will also be getting amazing and brilliant music.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys takes the listener on a journey through balloon rides, break-ups, yearning, anticipation, down Niagra Falls, and ends back at the beginning. Beautifully made, this album features some of Wendy and Lisa's best work to date. In addition to its beautiful lyrics, this album contains the complex multi-layered melodies that are a testament to their superb musicianship. Songs such as `Niagra Falls' and `Sweet Suite (Beginning at the End)' keep you guessing as to how many instruments are being played, what they are, and where Wendy's guitar ends and Lisa's `grunge' guitar sounding keyboarding begins.

Highlights of the album include `Salt N Cherries (MC5)'; an explosive rock anthem that is sure to get some part of your body moving, `You and I'; a captivating acoustic piece with incredible lyrical imagery, and `Sweet Suite (Beginning at the End)'; a song that features heart-breaking lyrics about missing a former love that breaks into an equally heart-breaking instrumental.

Listening to White Flags of Winter Chimneys is like looking into a beautiful seashell; you can spend hours analyzing its multi-layered patterns, its rich and complex color schemes, and its overlapping textures - only to realize that you have barely scratched the surface of its beauty. This album is truly a `must have' for Wendy & Lisa fans as well as fans of great music and fans of great vinyl!

There is an old adage that states: "Good things come to those who wait". This adage is only half-correct in describing my White Flags of Winter Chimneys experience. I HAVE waited patiently for the past 10 years for a new Wendy and Lisa album. However, my patience was rewarded not with something merely `good' but rather with a musical experience that was truly `GREAT'. White Flags of Winter Chimneys marks the 5th album release by the dynamic musical duo Wendy and Lisa.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys takes the listener on a journey through balloon rides, break-ups, yearning, anticipation, down Niagra Falls, and ends back at the beginning. Beautifully made, this album features some of Wendy and Lisa's best work to date.

One of the best qualities of White Flags lies in its unpredictability. The opening song `Balloon' is a dreamy ballad, sung by Lisa Coleman, with melodies as seemingly buoyant as the balloon described in the lyrics. The next song, `Invisible', is the antithesis of `Balloon'. The softly sung light-hearted lyrics of Lisa during `Balloon' are replaced by the angry, boastful disparagements sung by Wendy Melvoin during `Invisible'. Throughout the album, Wendy and Lisa expertly oscillate not only between music tempo but also between lead singing duties. This album features the greatest number of songs lead-sung by Lisa Coleman to date. Despite the fluctuating tempos/lead changes, Wendy and Lisa skillfully segue from one song to the other so that the album does not `feel' like a series of disconnected songs, rather, the album `feels' like one continuous musical journey.

In addition to the awesome song transitions, the album contains the complex multi-layered melodies that are a testament to their superb musicianship. Songs such as `Niagra Falls' and `Sweet Suite (Beginning at the End)' keep you guessing as to how many instruments are being played, what they are, and where Wendy's guitar ends and Lisa's `grunge' guitar sounding keyboarding begins.

Highlights of the album include `Salt N Cherries (MC5)'; an explosive rock anthem that is sure to get some part of your body moving, `You and I'; a captivating acoustic piece with incredible lyrical imagery, and `Sweet Suite (Beginning at the End)'; a song that features heart-breaking lyrics about missing a former love that breaks into an equally heart-breaking instrumental.

Listening to White Flags of Winter Chimneys is like looking into a beautiful seashell; you can spend hours analyzing its multi-layered patterns, its rich and complex color schemes, and its overlapping textures - only to realize that you have barely scratched the surface of its beauty. This album is truly a `must have' for Wendy and Lisa fans as well as fans of great music!

As with most of the reviews posted here,I agree that the newest Wendy and Lisa release is an exceptional musical journey that has been well worth the wait.After only a few listens(use a good pair of "cans" to listen to and really apppreciate the artistry,and song arrangements),it's become impossible to pick out a favorite song. IN FACT EVERY SONG IS DOWN RIGHT INCREDIBLE, in and by itself! Wendy and Lisa continue to amaze me with their musical masterpieces, and I think this is their best release yet(and that's real hard to pick one of their albums over another,they're all so good). If there is one song on this album to turn someone on to it has to be "Sweet Suite(Beginning At The End)", which is Lisa's keyboard tour-de-force. I also think that "Salt and Cherries(MC5)",deserves to be on every radio station and MP-3 player in the country! Enjoy this album and then go tell everyone you know in the your world, that Wendy and Lisa are really THIS GOOD!