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DVDfever.co.uk – Juliette Lewis: Terra Incognita CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Roadrunner Records
- Released: September 2009
- Rating: 6/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Third release, with out her regular band.
When actors switch codes to wannabe rock stars, its fraught with pot-holes. Sadly, some have tried in vain the list is too long to mention.After stints supported by garage rockers The Licks, shes gone for a full blown solo at the age of 36.
There are moments were this album, produced by Omar Rodriguez Lopez, really packs a punch like crunching Goth rocker Noche Sin Fin, but there are far to many messy bits especially on All Is For God and progressive rocker Female Persecution, where they lack any cohesion. Ok, theyre meant to be edgy songs, but shambolic is probably more appropriate. The latter sounds like an outtake of a bad, really bad, White Stripes album. The cacophonous drumming and sharp wah wahd guitar are too jarring.
Heavy rocker Junkyard Heart again proves difficult to swallow sounding too much like some disorganised jam session.
Things vastly improve on the country-tinged rocker Uh Huh where she plays it right-down-themiddle scoring some serious Brownie points.Gone is the hollering, using a more disciplined approach making her voice more efficient and appealing.
Power ballad Suicide Dive Bombers is arguably the best constructed song here it starts with acoustic strums and a fragile vocal, rising and falling with devastating effect, which on the run-in allows her tubes to unleash an earth shattering performance. The less intrusive production is key to its success. The same also applies to laid-back bluesy rocker Hard Lovin Woman this is tight and sharp accompanied by a peculiar Robert Plant-like vocal it works brilliantly though, but she loses it again on frenetic rocker Fantasy Bar, the weakest song here.
Fuzzy psychedelic ballad Romeo restores some writing craft, creating a creating atmosphere, while menacingly fragile Ghosts could be right out of Janis Joplins late period.
The Verdict: Mixed results.
Weblink:juliettelewis.org
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Intro
2. Noche Sin Fin
3. Terra Incognita
4. Hard Lovin Woman
5. Fantasy Bar
6. Romeo
7. Ghosts
8. All Is For God
9. Female Persecution
10. Uh Huh
11. Junkyard Heart
12. Suicide Dive BombersView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.