At his best, rock session man Leon Russell sounded like a
\nswamp-fueled Creedence Clearwater Revival with a shot of Dylan. At
\nhis worst, his grating voice was merged with songs too weird to be
\nenjoyable.<\/p>\n
\nCarne<\/i>y contains the best of both worlds with a nod to the
\nlatter category. There is a reason why Russell is the most famous
\nnobody in rock — he built everyone else’s careers, yet his own
\nnever really went anywhere, save for the hit “Lady Blue” in 1975,
\nand this release shows why.<\/p>\n
Classic rock fans might remember “Tightrope,” which uses circus
\nimages to explain the singer’s stance in life (“I’m up on the
\ntightrope \/ One side’s hate and one is hope \/ But to top that off,
\nmy head is all you see”). It’s a pretty good song, but Russell’s
\nnasally swamp drawl is an acquired taste that either enhances or
\nruins the song, no middle ground.<\/p>\n
“Out In The Woods” is a nice little shuffle number, while
\n“Roller Derby” is an all-too-brief honky tonk piece inspired by
\ngospel – both get points for being original. Really, the beauty of
\nthis album is in its originality, but original does not always
\nequal good, as the album eventually realizes.<\/p>\n
A number of melancholy songs about self-reflection and loss
\npepper this release. “Manhattan Island Serenade” veers between
\nminor chords\/depressing lyrics and major chords\/hopeful lyrics,
\ncarried by a piano and the sound of rain. “Me And Baby Jane” is an
\nembarrassing try at a love song, while “This Masquerade” is a
\ntearjerker about divorce, backed up by a mournful flute.<\/p>\n
There really isn’t any happiness on the album, except for the
\nthrowaway 40-second title track and the awful “Cajun Love Song.”
\n“If The Shoe Fits” is also rather upbeat, with Russell channeling
\nJethro Tull to mediocre results, while “My Cricket” is an extremely
\nslow ballad lacking emotion but compensating with Russell’s awful
\nvoice. There is also a psychedelic tune called “Acid Annapolis,”
\nwhich is just people imitating Scooby Doo-type ghosts for three
\nminutes, and that’s probably all I need to say.<\/p>\n
Russell redeems himself with “Magic Mirror,” in which his voice
\nsounds right in place singing the tale of a man who doesn’t know
\nhis place in the world (“The sellers think I’m merchandise \/
\nThey’ll have me for a song \/ The left ones think I’m right \/ The
\nright ones think I’m wrong”). The piano and finger-snaps give the
\nsong a casual roadside feel, and the listener can picture Russell
\ntelling his side of the story to the truck driver that picked him
\nup as he was hitchhiking somewhere far from home.<\/p>\n
\nCarney<\/i> is certainly original and interesting, an emotional
\nconcept album that could have been so much better. Sadly, the bad
\nor mediocre songs here outweigh the high points, making this
\nnothing more than a curiosity for the interested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":27276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7237],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-38636","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-leon-russell","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38636","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38636"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38636"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}