Paula Cole’s last album,
\nThis Fire<\/i>, was a brilliant piece of music, though a bit
\npainful to listen to sometimes; Cole’s high-school-art-student
\nmixture of naivete and idealism grated occasionally, but mostly it
\nshone like passion and truth, rare in this day and age of
\nmanufactured music. So when
\nAmen<\/i> was announced, my household pre-ordered it, to see what
\nthe earnest Cole had come up with.<\/p>\n
I have to admit, it’s an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying
\nbag. While
\nThis Fire<\/i> was a Lilith Fair fan’s best hope, the usual
\ncollection of pop and acoustic folk,
\nAmen<\/i> is almost a rhythm and blues album — the album’s
\nopener, “I Believe In Love”, could have been lifted straight from
\nthe Philadelphia Sound of the late seventies. When the album isn’t
\nrhythm and blues, it’s experimental, daring, and different. Cole’s
\nnot resting on the laurels of “I Don’t Wanna Wait”, and she should
\nget credit for her courage.<\/p>\n
She should also get credit for her light touch on the CD’s
\nproduction — her sound is crystalline, lacking the muddiness that
\nplagues female vocalists, and her mix of instruments is perfect.
\nWhatever its other merits or lack thereof,
\nAmen<\/i> sounds good musically — something to be thankful for,
\nso the experimentation of the music can rise or fall on its own
\nmerits. The problem is that those merits are too few and too far
\nbetween.<\/p>\n
It’s very hard to argue the power and sincerity in Cole’s music,
\nbut you can argue whether it’s any good — and the answer on
\nAmen<\/i> is, to be blunt, only sometimes. “Rhythm Of Life” is a
\njazz\/hip-hop testimony to Cole’s religious faith, heartfelt and
\ncomplex, but it could have done with a bit less rapping and a bit
\nmore singing. (It’s not that Cole
\ncan’t<\/i> rap, though she ain’t Queen Latifah, but she sings
\nbetter). “Pearl” is a well-written reflection on being a female
\nmusician, but lacks punch in the long run. “La Tonya”‘s tale of
\nghetto life in the end leaves you a bit short and unsatisfied,
\nnever making you
\nfeel<\/i> the pain that’s behind it. Then there are the songs
\nthat work without any mistakes: “I Believe In Love,””Free,””Amen”
\nand and the funky “God Is Watching.” Finally, my momma said if you
\ncan’t say something nice, don’t say it, so I’m not mentioning
\n“Suwanee Jo.”<\/p>\n
\nAmen<\/i> is well named. It is a testimony to Cole’s growing
\nreligious faith, a strong and emphatic statement about what’s
\nimportant to Paula Cole as an artist and a person, and at its core
\nan exposition on belief. It has some problems as a work of music,
\nthough, and because of that, caveat emptor must be invoked; in some
\nways artists as disparate as Stevie Wonder and Amy Grant have been
\nover this territory already, and mapped it in a more accessible
\nfashion. Let’s hope next time the Paula Cole Band remembers
\nthat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6158],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36322","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paula-cole-band","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36322","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36322"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36322"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}