Another 10 minute review!!

It is a rare thing to hear raw authentic blues these days – and we’re talking Robert Johnson style recordings – a guitar, vocal and maybe something simple beating (a foot on the floor, a single drum etc) the basic rhythm. This is a long way from the studio polished efforts from the current blues statesmen (i.e. Eric Clapton et al). But here we have it – minimal mic’ing, all the nuances of guitar strings buzzing and vibrating on the recording. To top this off Chris also plays using a Pedal Steel Guitar – on its own a rare thing, but combined with the rawness of the delivery – something special to hear, particularly as it isn’t muddied by the fact it has had to be mastered from a piece or warn and tired out piece of vinyl or aged master tape. For most people this isn’t a recording that will invoke simple pleasure and emotional response. This is something that should be atleast listened to once for an appreciation of authenticity.

Chris’ voice is far from the smoothest, but then Chris’ isn’t in the easy listening secton of your local CD shop or webstore; his voice is extremely expressive easily changing in strength of delivery and intonation to support the lyrics.

Before I put most people off Chris’ work completely – his recordings so have ranged massively, through the blues (from this raw approach, through to very polished performances), into Americana (check out Living with The Law) and onto more conventional Rock and Grunge (Din Of Ecastasy). But this album is for Chris Whitley fans, and those that love the purest and rawest of blues or want to have a lesson in what it should sound like.

Well,

The greatest hits album has found its way into the record shops – the album contains:

1. Insomnia
2. Mass Destruction
3. God Is A DJ
4. Don’t Leave
5. Muhammed Ali
6. We Come On
7. Reverence
8. Salva Mea
9. One Step Too Far
10. Bring My Family Back
11. Miss You Less, See You More
12. Tarantula
13. Fatty Boo
14. I Want More

So it would appear that we have one new track in the form of Fatty Boo, and the rest are album cuts that have been released as singles. The tragic thing is Faithless have been innovative (although annoying) by re-releasing the albums with remix disks with some wonderful versions of their songs – non of which appear here. And what of their additional songs contributed to soundtracks such as Woozy for The Beach (it was a toss up between Woozy and Unkle’s contribution for the best track on the album). Then there is the Late Night Sessions and several other mixes.

This is not to say that this isn’t a great set of songs, it simply an unoriginal choice, if you have all the albums so far, then I’d suggest thinking hard before buying, you’d be better off paying for a ticket and seeing them live – great gigs despite Maxi Jazz’ voice suffers a bit on the road; that or a live bootleg if you can find one. But for those who just like the hits, or want to get to know Faithless better, then this is a great starting point.

The question is, come the autumn will we be seeing a double album version with the second disc containing remixes? Something that may well be a lot more interesting, particularly if Sister Bliss and Rollo decide to do some new ones!

The first and most striking thing about Josepth Arthur’s work is his vocal delivery. This singular thing is most likely to turn people off his work in many ways like the average reaction to Bob Dylan’s vocal performance. This is not to say that his vocals are as demanding as Dylan’s (well atleast in my opnion). His delivery at the at its loudest can come across as a blues shouter as much as anything else, but much of his delivery is a lot slower and quieter, the only point of reference that comes to mind is taking Leonard Cohen and speeding his delivery up slightly, raising it an octave and making it slightly nasal. But what adds the unusual nature of the vocal is Joseph’s tendency to adding a choral/reverb effect to his voice, making things a lot easier to listen to.

If you are comfortable with this vocal sound then you’re in for a treat, as Joseph’s strength isn’t his vocals (and he recognises this – hence the processing) but the music and song writing which have improved with every release, and his debut Big City Secrets was no light weight to start with.

The album’s musical range is very broad from acoustic based tracks like Echo park through to more rocky stuff like Stumble And Pain. The later even incorporates string sections which feel perfectly natural.

This is probably his most accessable album to date, some might say the most mainstream. But I’d recommend any self respecting music fan to give this album a chance.