Wednesday, December 16, 2015

CD Odyssey Disc 811: Lyle Lovett

I’m always exploring new music, but since my music reviews are in random order you might not know it. I was reminded of this by a regular reader this afternoon. Here’s a recent scouting report:
·         Wilco – After reviewing “A Ghost is Born” I was inspired to the four latest Wilco albums. None are bad but the only one I’m interested in picking up is their self-titled effort from 2009.
·         I also recently checked out every artist from a recent article enumerating the top 15 albums of 2015. The standouts were Courtney Barnett, Torres and Sleater Kinney. Courtney Barnett is truly awesome, and since Sleater Kinney has been around since the mid-nineties I delved through their eight-disc catalogue. I’ve still got two to go, but the early winners are “Call the Doctor” (1996) and “Dig Me Out” 1997. To all of you readers shouting “I’ve known that for years!” congratulations, you’re very clever. They’re new to me.

On to the Odyssey, and a disc that’s been in my collection for longer than Sleater Kinney have even existed.

Disc 811 is….Pontiac
Artist: Lyle Lovett

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? An out-of-focus shot of Mr. Lovett. Like Nick Cave from my last review, Lyle is “ugly sexy” and has the most resplendent head of hair from this era. Check this shot out from inside the CD jacket:
In the mid-nineties I brought this picture to my stylist and said “give me the Lyle!” I might go back to the Lyle one day, but right now I’m still enjoying the David Crosby.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve told this story before, but since it was six years ago, I’ll tell it again. I saw a Lyle Lovett video for the song "Here I Am", bought an album and have been hooked ever since. The song was from his 1986 debut, and as his sophomore effort, “Pontiac” seemed the logical place to go next.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Lyle Lovett albums and they are all good, but for some reason I’ve been rolling a lot of the weaker ones. Not anymore – “Pontiac” is a classic record that should be in any music lover’s collection. I rank it #1.

Ratings: 5 stars

Like Nick Cave on “Let Love In”, “Pontiac” is an album exploring the nature of love. The difference is that while Lyle is not afraid to explore love when it goes wrong, he also sees the humour in the situation. The effect is a record that is less dark than “Let Love In” but more insightful in both musical range and theme.

Musically Lyle is a fantastic mix of blues, country, lounge and a smattering of jazz. Leonard Cohen has the same mix with a folk bent and Tom Waits is that mix with a blues bent. Lyle is their country cousin.

That said, to call this album a country album is to understate its range. “M.O.N.E.Y.” and “She’s No Lady” feel like they are part of a lounge act, and “Black and Blue” is something you’d hear in a smoky jazz bar.

Of these, “She’s No Lady” is my favourite. It is a song about marriage to a veritable harridan which is more funny than tragic; think Basil Faulty out on the town. The song begins:

“She hates my mama
She hates my daddy too
She loves to tell me
She hates the things I do
She loves to lie beside me
Almost every night
She’s no lady, she’s my wife.”

Lovett – the master of comic timing has just the subtlest of pauses before singing “almost” to let you know his girl isn’t always coming home to tell him what she thinks of him. As someone who’s been married a while (to a great woman, not a harridan) my favourite line is “Seems like she’s always been hanging here off my right arm.”

Other lighthearted love songs on the album include “Give Back My Heart” about a bull rider meeting a girl who likes his line of work, and “She’s Hot to Go” another jazzy theatre number which has a Muppet Show beat and lyrics about a girl who’s ‘hot to go’, but ‘ugly from the front.’ As Lyle’s chorus replies, “but you ugly too!

For all that fun, “Pontiac” also has its dark side. The title track is a moody and understated character study about an old man years returned from the war, now feeling trapped in his life of normalcy, with a wife who has no way to understand his pain. He sees her only as “The woman inside my house/She won’t stop talking/She never says a thing.

“I Loved You Yesterday” is a traditional honkytonk break up song, and “Walk Through the Bottomland” is the counter to “Give Back My Heart” – featuring a woman who falls for a rodeo worker but can’t live that life, and instead drifts away broken-hearted.

The album’s masterpiece is “L.A. County” a song that at first blush sounds like it is triumphant and upbeat until you listen carefully to the lyrics. This is a song about a woman leaving a man, moving away and falling in love with someone new. The song follows her jilted lover as he drives into L.A. County, marveling at the beauty of the lights even as a dark .45 pistol sits ominously on the seat next to him.

The song has a fast country beat and a manic quality to the melody that captures the certainty in the heart of the man with the pistol. His resolve is pure and clear, and I was reminded how mania and maniacs are intrinsically linked. It is a troubling insight into what can happen when the self-righteous feel they have been wronged and quickly move past reason in their quest for vengeance.

Both “L.A. County” and “Walk Through the Bottomland” have backing vocals from Emmylou Harris, who’s high quaver adds just the right amount of sadness and yearning to each.

My only quibble with this record is that it suffers from the bad production common to late eighties CDs, which were often recorded for tape and record and transferred over without any treatment. As a result it sounds a bit muted, and I’d love for Lyle to release a remaster of this undervalued classic. Even without the remaster, I’m still giving it 5 stars.

Best tracks:  All tracks, but in particular: If I Had a Boat, Give Back My Heart, I Loved You Yesterday, Walk Through the Bottomland, L.A. County, She’s No Lady, Simple Song, Pontiac

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