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DVDfever.co.uk – Rachael Yamagata: Elephants/Teeth Sinking Into Heart CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Warner Bros. Records
- Released: March 2009
- Rating: Disc 1: 10/10; Disc 2: 4/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
These days, its a brave move doing a double album. Should have been just one.
Singer-songwriter-pianist Yamagata is one of the few self-contained troubadours emanating out of the USA today.
Born is Arlington Virginia, this 31 year old Yonsei, a fourth generation Japanese-American of her fathers side and of German-Italian ancestry on her mothers side.In her early musical days, she was a singer with Chicago funk-fusion band Bumpus, spending six years touring and recording three albums.
Around 2001, some of the material she wrote didnt fit the bands repertoire, so she saved them for a possible solo career. In 2002 she realised her dream and secured a two record deal with label Private Music (Arista) resulting in her debut in 2004, Happenstance.Since then her songs have appeared on hits TV shows The O.C., Greys Anatomy and The City, to name but a few, along with several films.
On CD 1, the Chicagoan delivers a series of piano based ballads that deal with simmering angst flourished with sumptuous arrangements using strings and a host of other instrumentation. You know the stuff difficult relationships etc.By definition this is a pretty melancholic affair, though there is beauty and heartache in every lilt of her smokey voice, who some might compare with Norah Jones, with the guts to actually let loose her tormented lyrical landscape. You only have to hear the slicing twists of her vocal gymnastics on the gorgeous but somehow menacing Sunday Afternoon to know what Im actually talking about.
Elephants opens CD 1, with hushed and plaintive vocals that suck you in instantly. When the strings arrive, it adds a darker tone, which are used to great effect throughout this CD.Above all Yamagata isnt afraid to show her insecurity and vulnerability and this best revealed on the stunning What If I Leave.The last three songs are beautiful in every aspect, especially the stirring (and I mean stirring) Over And Over, but its the deeply intimate and simple Duet that shines above all here, where she bounces off the mesmerising tones of none other than (the incredible larynx) of Ray Lamontagne.
Teeth..is a very different beast – shes decided to rock out (a bit). Her voice doesnt adapt well to some of the songs like the gritty Sidedish Friend and ballsy Accident, and in reality could have been saved for another album. It fares better on the mellower Pause The Tragic Ending where theres a more subtle and refined approach.
Strange she should include all doom and gloom Dont on this second disc, though its yet another example of her misty-eyed vulnerability which shes become a master of.
The verdict Real grower.
Weblink:rachaelyamagata.com
The full list of tracks included are :
Disc 1: Elephants
1. Elephants
2. What If I Leave
3. Little Life
4. Sunday Afternoon
5. Elephants (instrumental)
6. Duet
7. Over And Over
8. Brown Eyes
9. Horizon
Disc 2: Teeth Sinking Into Heart
1. Sidedish Friend
2. Accident
3. Faster
4. Pause The Tragic Ending
5. Dont
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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.