It’s time for another episode of “Mr. Thelen Changes His Mind,”
\nthat ever popular program where your favorite reviewer (me) takes
\nhis foot out of his mouth long enough to admit his first impression
\nof an album was incorrect.<\/p>\n
Today’s teacher: Scott Floman, who not only questioned my sanity
\nfor finding weakness in an album by Sugar but also brought back to
\nmy attention The Jayhawks, and their Def American debut
\nHollywood Town Hall<\/i> fron 1992. My first impression: decent,
\nbut boring. So, off it went to the hidden depths of the now-famous
\nPierce Memorial Archives (good seats still available for our
\nAcademy Awards party) – that is, until Mr. Floman suggested it for
\nreview.<\/p>\n
So, off to the archives I went with a flashlight and a stick –
\nthere it is, just next to my collection of Vanilla Fudge records –
\nand dusted off the CD for today’s review.<\/p>\n
One opinion of The Jayhawks hasn’t changed – they are a decent
\nband, but I withdraw my original decree of boring. They produce a
\nsound which reminds me of Matthew Sweet, only with a country twang
\nto the tunes. The melodies and vocal harmonies of
\nHollywood Town Hall<\/i> make this a quick, but satisfying
\nlisten.<\/p>\n
Ah, the vocal harmonies. Guitarists Mark Olson and Gary Louris
\nblend together perfectly. While this is true of dozens of groups,
\nit is the songwriting behind the vocals that make the match
\nspecial. “Nevada, California” is a perfect example of this mesh.
\nAnother example is “Crowded In The Wings,” with Olson’s harmonica
\nadding a whole new layer to the melody.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the power comes in the subtleties of the performances.
\nBassist Marc Perlman and drummer Ken Callahan stay in the
\nbackground most of the album, but the solid backbeat they provide
\nfor most of the music on this album is just as important.<\/p>\n
The one song which continually sticks out in my mind is “Take Me
\nWith You (When You Go),” though I can’t explain why. Even when I
\nfirst listened to this CD five years ago, that song stuck out as
\nthe highlight.<\/p>\n
One of the most powerful cuts on the album is “Two Angels,”
\nwhich paints a vivid lyrical picture of dreariness that makes the
\nlistener pay attention. The brief “Martin’s Song” and “Clouds” also
\ntell interesting stories backed with solid msuical
\naccompaniment.<\/p>\n
I can’t think of a single poor performance on
\nHollywood Town Hall<\/i> – the excellence is uniform throughout
\nthe album. However, the only weakness in the mix is the formula
\ngets a little tired near the end of the album. Sometimes you’re
\nwaiting for the band to break out of the power-country they are
\nplaying and go gonzo a la the Eagles, but they don’t allow this to
\nhappen. Too bad – it would have been interesting to hear what they
\ncould have done.<\/p>\n
So, I am yet again taught a lesson by a member of the
\nreadership. Scott, you were right – this was an album that is worth
\nchecking out. (Interesting to note that The Jayhawks have a new
\nalbum coming out next month – I thought I had heard the band broke
\nup. I’ll be waiting outside the door of Best Buy to grab this one
\nwhen it comes out.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5691],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35567","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-jayhawks","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35567"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35567"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}