Imagine Cher singing country-tinged alternative rock. Maybe it’s
\na little hard to picture – or maybe it’s just something you don’t
\nwant to picture.<\/p>\n
Tina Schlieske has a singing style just like this, but she puts
\nenough of her own attitude and style into it to make it an
\ninteresting voyage.
\nIt’s All Just The Same<\/i>, the latest release from Tina &
\nThe B-Sides, is a challenging album to listen to, and is one that
\nyou’re not going to grasp on just one listen. But if you have the
\ntime and the patience to put into such an album, the effort will
\nprove to be worth it.<\/p>\n
Schlieske’s vocal swagger comes forward early on in the album;
\nthe cut “In My Own Time” builds from a complicated acoustic guitar
\nrhythm lick to the vocals, eventually folding the rest of the band
\ninto the mix. The one negative I heard was in the moment the band
\nkicked in with the electric side of things; the sound seems, well,
\ndirty… no, muddy is more like it. Whatever the case, it’s a sound
\nyou quickly find yourself hoping isn’t on the rest of the album.
\n(Fortunately, it isn’t.)<\/p>\n
When Schlieske and her assembled crew of musicians (including
\nher sister Laura on background vocals and a few varied instruments)
\nturn the faucet to “rock”, things roll pretty smoothly. Tracks like
\n“Grey,” “She’s Undone” and “No Way Of Knowing” all stand out on
\nIt’s All Just The Same<\/i>. And while the country-fried moments
\nare by no means terrible, there is a noticeable dip in the energy
\nlevel of the music. It’s easy to get excited about the rock
\nnumbers, but it’s a little harder to build up momentum for the
\ncountry-tinged songs while you’re listening to them. (This is by no
\nmeans saying that Schlieske should abandon the country side of her
\nmusic.)<\/p>\n
Some cuts like “No Holdin’ Back” and “Fall From Grace” all show
\nsigns of promise, but also bear marks of hope left unfulfilled.
\nLikewise, “Take Me Down (Tonite pt. II)” could have been a great
\nsong, but this particular track falls prey to a common enemy of
\nmusic: repetition. Something as simple as a little more development
\nin the song – even just in the lyrics of the chorus and outros –
\ncould have helped significantly.<\/p>\n
But there are moments where the country influences show the
\npower of Tina & The B-Sides. The one track that sticks out in
\nmy mind is “I Am Forsaken (Kentucky Song)”, which could well be the
\nbest track on the album.<\/p>\n
I thought I was ready to write a review of
\nIt’s All Just The Same<\/i> after a cursory listen, but after I
\nrelented and threw it back into the CD player, I discovered many
\nmore things to like about the disc that I hadn’t heard before.
\nListeners will quickly discover that this is an album that you
\ncan’t just slap on as background noise; you have to spend some time
\nlistening closely to what’s unfolding in front of your ears – a
\ndiscovery process that could take a few listens. I question if the
\naverage listener has that kind of time to invest, never mind
\nwhether or not they’re willing to put that kind of an effort into a
\nCD.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot on
\nIt’s All Just The Same<\/i> that is worthy of your attention, and
\nthe more you listen to the album, the more you’ll find to like
\nabout it. But if you’re someone who goes on first impressions alone
\n– as I almost did – then you might not be willing to give Tina
\n& The B-Sides a fighting chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7406],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38996","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tina-the-b-sides","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38996","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=38996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38996"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38996"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}