If we're truthful about it, I doubt most of us out there would admit to remembering much of TRACY CHAPMAN'S catalogue bar that smash hit eponymous debut album featuring "Fast Car"and "Talkin' Bout A Revolution".
Yet, what goes around comes around, and with the world living through such precarious times, I guess this is good a time as any to reintroduce the girl who was briefly the thinking man's protest-singing favourite in the, er, late 80s or thereabouts.
And, with its' socially-conscious tone, live and rootsy studio feel and concerned Bush-baiting lyrical content, "Where You Live" - actually her seventh studio album - sounds like it has a fair-to-middling chance of putting Tracey Chapman's career back on the map. Produced by Tchad Blake (Crowded House, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello etc) and featuring contributions from the likes of Joe Gore (Eels, PJ Harvey), Flea (yes, as in the Chili Peppers) and long-term production colleague Mitchell Froom on a variety of keyboard instruments, the album hangs together pretty well and overall makes like a convincing, low-key treat.
Cutting to the chase, "America" is the Dubya-challenging one that's already getting tongues wagging and will probably be marked out for wider attention. It's a gripping, eloquent attack on the Bush administration too and its' lyrics ("You bomb the very ground that feeds your own babies/ You're still conquering America/ Your sons and daughters may never sing your praises") are charged and vividly memorable. Indeed, in terms of sheer intensity alone, it's an instant success.
It's not the only time when Chapman's muse thwacks the bullseye straight and true, either. Indeed, the affecting "3,000 Miles" is another postcard sent from the heart of unstable modern America, and it's difficult to simply close your eyes and shut out vivid lines like "Hit the floor, shut off the lights as the bullets fly/ Terror rules the dark nights, dogs hang from the trees". Elsewhere, the band are earthy, live and cooking on the older, wiser folk-pop of "Change" and the slow and soulful "Going Back" presents us with a jarring juxtaposition between the grey horrors of modern life and the safety of nostalgia, not to mention cloaking it in a melancholic tune aided and abetted by Froom's hymnal celeste.
|
Of course, some personal balance is restored thanks to the inclusion of songs like "Love's Proof" and the bitter "Never Yours." The former is a nice contrast of much that surrounds it, as it's a surprisingly tender ballad of desire and better times ("I want you...try to forget her/ You think she's good, I'll be better"), while "Never Yours" is a superficially plangent affair that ends with a poisonous sting in the tail thanks to the kiss-off line: "I let you lie beside me with no remorse/ I've been a lot of things, but never yours." Phew!
Musically, the band (even extroverts like Flea) play it mostly straight and subtle, and Chapman's clear-yet-husky vocals cut through impressively on virtually every song. There again, the resolutely slow-to-medium tempo of all the songs has a tendency to hold the record back, and however good songs like "Change", the dignfied "Talk To You" and the inflammatory "America" are, there's still nothing as immediate as another "Talkin' About A Revolution" to burn itself into your synapses.
But then perhaps expecting that might be asking a little too much. This writer had personally written off (and largely forgotten) Tracy Chapman some years back, so to hear her returning with with this much verve and passion - and sounding like she might be in contention once again - is both heartening and a pleasant surprise. Life's full of surprises, ain't it?
|
