Third and easily best solo album by American singer/songwriter Jennifer Warnes, whose career trajectory is weird enough to briefly summarize here. She started out in the late 60s as a folk-rocker singing slightly overwrought covers. Sometimes in the early 70s, she caught the attention of some pretty cool people: her third album (this one) was produced by John Cale, and she joined up with Leonard Cohen, playing in his band and contributing to a bunch of his records over the course of the next five decades. Her ensuing solo records, on the other hand, while moderately commercially successful, were as middle-of-the-road as it gets. In the 80s, she briefly carved out a niche for herself singing the female part on massive hit duets written for movies. First, it was the dreadful "Up Where We Belong", then it was "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", both of which went to #1. Like I said, weird career. [EDIT: Thanks to a commenter, I now know that she also sings on Arthur Russell's "That's Us/Wild Combination", literally one of the best, most beautiful songs ever recorded.]
Anyway, the album. Her best solo record by a wide margin, it consists of the kind of folky pop-rock that dominated the charts in the early 70s, but there's stylistic range beneath the surface -- over the course of three tracks, she jumps from sunny country rock to an ethereal take on Donovan's "Sand and Foam" to a smoldering, soulful rendition of Free's "Be My Friend" without missing a beat. This can probably partially be attributed to Cale's pitch-perfect production; Warnes' pristine vocals, which are far more subtle and expressive than on her previous efforts; and great songs, which include a Cale original ("Empty Bottles") and Warnes' own take on the now-iconic "These Days". It's not gonna change your life, but it's a really nice listen.
Track listing:
1. In the Morning
2. P.F. Sloan
3. Empty Bottles
4. Sand and Foam
5. Be My Friend
6. Needle and Thread
7. Last Song
8. All My Love's Laughter
9. These Days
10. Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)
Also listen to:
I was just thinking about Jennifer Warnes a couple of days ago when I heard her on the radio with First We Take Manhattan, the lyrics to that song are so extraordinary. Anyway, I always considered her 'duet' with Arthur Russell on 'That's us/Wild Combination' to be one of the most beautiful and heartfelt songs she ever did.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, I had no idea that was her! That's my favorite Arthur Russell song. She really took such a strange path with her music career. Thank you for commenting!
DeleteHer debut I Can Remember Everything is still my overall favorite, but Sand and Foam and Magdalene on this are almost better than anything on that one.
ReplyDeleteI am naming my first born after you for posting this.
ReplyDeleteSo, after all the anticipation you get a lousy (sorry, lossy) eMPty3 version ... Who needs that shit? Flac rules !!!
ReplyDeleteI sure am sorry that the free download I gave you wasn't up to snuff. You could've taken a few seconds to read the little blurb in the upper right-hand corner stating that I don't do lossless, and saved yourself all those 2 minutes it took you to download. But hey, thanks for adding more utterly pointless negativity to the internet.
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