Partners In Crime, Petty Thieves In A Lineup
I finally got the new Rachael Yamagata album, “Chesapeake”, today. It’s been out almost a month now. I am disappoint…
Now, I loves me some Yamagata. Pretty hard. Hell, my handle on this here Tumblah is a song title of hers. This album though…
This is the kind of album that I want to run up to people and shove the cd in their face and scream “LISTEN TO THIS! LOVE THIS! IT’S UTTER BRILLIANCE!”.
As much as I love her, I must admit that on the last two cds there are some pretty hefty duds amidst the crazyamazingness. Thankfully the high points are so good that it makes it easy to gloss over the less successful songs.
“Chesapeake” has no such minor points. It’s just brilliance upon brilliance. She’s always sung about the ups and downs (mostly downs) of love and this album certainly carries on those themes. Lyrically she’s always been a pro but sometimes I feel like her music has let her down. Pretty words are great and all but if you don’t want to listen to the songs, there’s no point. Here, however, she finds the perfect match between lyrics and music.
The album literally begins with an explosion of sound, with “Even If I Don’t”. Wait, whaaa? Explosions of sound and Rachael Yamagata are not things that go together. Colour me intrigued! What follows is a tale of looking back on a failed lover and how there are times when you remember an old love and you feel silly and reckless. Again, pretty typical fare for her but the song itself is such a sonic smorgasbord (for her) that instantly it’s clear that she’s onto something new and it works so magically. Then “Starlight” kicks in and suddenly she’s slinky and sexy and bluesy. It’s such a great one-two punch of “NEW!” for her that as a long time fan I’m so hooked.
Y’know what? I can’t even describe how freaking fantastic this album is. Just do yourself a favour and find it, buy it, download it, torrent it (is torrent a verb? I dunno. Stupid technology.), steal it from a blind man. Just get it. It is unquestionably my vote for best album of the year so far.
