Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bold Steps for Tift, August 24, 2004
Tift Merritt's first album, Bramble Rose, was critically acclaimed but fell short of high expectations. This was due mostly to a lack of exposure on any major radio markets. The songs fell between the genre cracks - not quite country enough for country, too little rock and roll for rock. It was generally classified as "alt-country" or "roots." What it really was was Tift Merritt's heart and soul laid out in stunning melodies.
With Tambourine, Tift has completely reinvented herself. The album itself is slickly produced, with lots of instruments and lots of backup voices, compared to the simple, naive production of Bramble Rose.
By now you've probably heard the hype, comparisons to Dusty Springfield, Delaney and Bonnie, and Carole King. The comparisons are apt. This is clearly a sound from a more soulful generation.
Fortunately, the heart and soul behind the music is still Tift Merritt. She is a remarkable songstress. And her beautiful voice is captured with remarkable clarity in these recordings.
If you're a big fan of Tift's earlier music, you'll probably need to listen to Tambourine three or four times before you fully appreciate it. If Tift is a new find, you'll probably find yourself singing along with songs like "Good Hearted Man," or "Write My Ticket." You'll get a good chuckle out of "Your Love Made a U Turn." If you're like me, you'll get completely hooked on "Still Pretending." Old fan or new, once you put Tambourine into your CD player, you'll be loathe to take it out.
Given the remarkable variety of Tift's first two albums, one can only hope we don't have to wait another two years to see what she will come up with next.
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54 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhere between Patty Griffin & Sheryl Crow, September 10, 2004
Tift's first album was a roots-based, singer-songwriter effort made during the afterglow of "Brother Where Art Thou" when Music Row execs thought that Americana music would be embraced by the public. Unfortunately, the hoped for resurgence in roots music fizzled and many albums, including Bramble Rose, failed to sell.
Following in the footsteps of Wilco and Ryan Adams, Tift has moved out of Southern roots-based music with this album in the effort to sell some records. I can't blame any of them for doing this. There's no use making music unless you have an audience to hear it.
Tift Merritt is a fine songwriter with a sweet voice, and a lot of ambition. There's a lot of Memphis-based soul and a lot of 70s based rock and roll on this album, and an overheated production that sounds best when played very loud. At times, the songs on this album are honest, cut through the slickness, and remind me of Patty Griffin at her best. Other times, the songs are shallow, have decent hooks and remind me of Sheryl Crow.
Sometimes the production on this album overwhelms her voice. While a lot of money has been poured into this album, it's not clear to me how it's going to find a major audience. Just how many people are going to buy 70s-based music steeped in Al Green and the Allman Brothers? It's worth noting that one of the fine back up singers on this album, Maria McKee, tried doing this with an album of her own a few years back. It didn't sell.
Being a star requires talent, hard work, a sound right for the times, compromises to your art, and a whole lot of luck. I've been listening to Tift Merritt since she started playing dive clubs in Chapel Hill and Raleigh (she's a great live performer). I know she wants to be a star. I don't think this album has the sound to get her there, but I hope I'm wrong.
P.S. I picked up a vinyl version of this album and it sounds much better than the CD version, which is very brassy. Given that the feel of the album is very much late 60s / early 70s in tone, listening to it on vinyl gives the album a nice context.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most fun album of the year, September 1, 2004
If there was a knock on Tift Merrit's lovely first album Bramble Rose, it was that the songs -- a bunch of little jewels -- were over-polished. Even a a little rocker like "Neighborhood" politely layered lyric bite and jangly guitars beneath a mannered lacquer of production.
That's not a problem on this album, so much. On Tambourine, Merrit lets loose: There are bluesy torch songs, throwback rock anthems ("Wait it Out"), joyful love songs ("Tambourine") and a song ("Your Love Made a U-Turn") that basically defies description, except to say that it's perhaps the greatest example of gonzo white girl funk in the history of that genre.
The real fun in this album -- aside from the unfettered joy of the runaway harmony singers, the ebuilllient organs, the horn solos -- is wondering at the difference between the first and second albums. The effect is something like watching a Student Government president getting trashed, letting her hair down & dancing on the tables -- even if the moves occasionally misfire, you have to admire the abandon. Did she find love? Her old Carole King CDs? I like to think that maybe it was the influence of Maria McKee -- in a sort of "Aunt Buck" role -- in all her howling, messy joy, that loosened her up. In any case, get this album -- it's one of the most fun of the year.
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