Five things to know about U kin B the Sun, by Frazey Ford
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2020 19:07:55 +0000
Frazey Ford | Arts & Crafts
It’s been six years since Indian Ocean. The second album by former Be Good Tanyas singer Frazey Ford found the Vancouver-based soul/folksinger pairing her instantly recognizable voice with backing from no less than the Hi Rhythm Section, the Reverend Al Green’s band.
It was a perfect fit for her unique delivery, which includes the kind of drawled diction and half-finished phrasing.
Like blues or R&B greats, it’s all about the feel as much as the meaning in the lyrics, although hits such as Done from Indian Ocean hit with both groove and message about having had enough of the dysfunction and violence in society. The same is true of The Kids are Having None of it on the new album, which holds out hope for the younger generation fixing the mess that is the world today.
Once again, the music is in a classic ’70s soul vein and works its way into your brain slowly. Here are five things to know about the album:
1: Azad. The opening song is proof of how less is more in the world of pop music. Rolling in on a superb bass line and simple snare and hi-hat beat, the tune slowly builds the whole way through, gaining simple organ, smooth backing vocals and then a funky-as-can-be keyboard vamp right out of Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious. It’s a killer first tune.
2: Money Can’t Buy. “You’ve got a life that money can’t buy.” Ford repeats this line repeatedly, almost chanting it, as she outlines how the subject of the song has blown it again. Presumably, this is due to hubris. But it’s not an angry song as much as a regretful statement about someone you sense that she cares/cared about. It’s very moody.
3: Let’s Start Again. This could be the most straight-ahead, blues tinged tune Ford has ever recorded. A loving plea to do as the title declares, the song is pleading for more. But, ultimately, it ends on a descending piano scale that doesn’t sound hopeful at all.
4: The Kids are Having None of it. Ford notes in the news release for the album that the album’s songs came out in a much more direct way than her previous work, and it’s far more direct. Nowhere is this more clear than in this single where she sounds like she is warning those in power to take notice of what the future may hold if they don’t listen to the youth of today. The singer mentions being “more in touch with the wholeness of anger,” and this track certainly is.
5: Golden. One of the most upbeat songs of the set, U kin B the Sun might have benefited from a few more like this song to shuffle up the overarching mood of resignation and melancholy that pervades the 11 tracks. Sometimes, being able to punch air and be “happy to jump in the sea” over a sweet guitar solo really is enough. This is sure to be an in-concert hit when Ford hits the road again.
Also out this week:
Alabaster DePlume
To Cy and Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 | International Anthem
London-based singer/instrumentalist DePlume collects 11 instrumentals recorded over the past eight years onto one standout album. Opening with the gorgeous Visit Croatia, featuring a haunting clarinet soaring over scant piano and echoing keyboards, the album ventures into terrain as different as Song of the Foundling, which sounds like Tinariwen interpreted by avant-garde classical musicians, to Why, Buzzardman, Why, with its classical piano flourishes. An unusual, and completely rewarding, record whose only shortcoming is a bit too much tempo consistency in the writing.
Last Wild Sons
East Side of Midnight | thelastwildsons
From 1987 to 1991 Vancouver’s Last Wild Sons were regulars on the exploding roots-rock scene. Brothers Gene, Darren and Shaun (Butch) Murphy and buddy Al Black Davidson formed Version 1 of this band and recorded one album that saw its release and a collection of other tracks. These were consigned to the closet for a few decades, but are finally getting out there and it’s crazy that songs such as the excellent, chiming Tell Em What I Was and title track didn’t hit back in the day. If you like bands like the Blasters, X or Jason and the Scorchers, you will want to hear this.
Sons of Apollo
MMXX | Inside Out Records
Supergroups usually don’t live up to their billing. However, the pairing of former Dream Theatre members Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian with Ron (Bumblefoot) Thal (ex-Guns N Roses), Billy Sheehan (ex-David Lee Roth) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey) appears to be one that delivers the kind of progressive metal that Dream Theatre were beloved for. If you want complex-but-heavy workouts full of plenty of solos, then King of Delusion, or the nearly 16-minutes-long New World Today, won’t disappoint. But it’s also pretty accessible on other tracks, explaining why the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Current Hard Rock chart.
Tami Neilson
Chickaboom! | Outside Music
The cover declares “the hot rockin’ lady of country, rockabilly and soul sings … ” And she does. From the slinky opener Call Your Mama, with its constant cowbell and percussion driving home the message that the fella can go home as his days of being a useless mooch are over, to the raucous jam of Tell Me that You Love Me, Neilson lives up to her mile-high bouffant and fringe-jacket ’50s vibe. Great production, particularly on the Everly Brothers-esque closer Sleep.