The first thoughts I had as the opening track of Shea Seger’s
\nThe May St. Project<\/i>, “Last Time” (which will probably be a
\nsingle(, began to play were about the drum loops in the background.
\nThey weren’t Terry Bozzio style innovating, or Keith Moon in
\nfrenzy, but they were interesting. In fact, as the CD wore on, they
\nremained the only truly interesting part for me.<\/p>\n
For the most part, “Last Time” is very unoriginal and boring.
\nIt’s got a hook, but with Seger’s flat-voiced delivery it fails.
\nThe first few times I listened to it I couldn’t remember the melody
\nafter it finished.<\/p>\n
However, before the faithful reader begins to disregard this
\nreview as a scathing portrait of an untalented artist, I feel I
\nshould allow for a few tracks that do speak to me. I rather enjoyed
\n“Always,” which featured interesting, almost off-key harmonizing in
\nthe background. Seger employs this technique a few other times,
\nwith surprising success.<\/p>\n
“I Love You Too Much” features an interesting melodic part,
\nunderneath the drum-loop and vocals, and while the Ani DiFranco
\nimpersonation she attempts is very nice, it still lacks something.
\nIt’s enjoyable; and it follows the artistic diversion into
\ndrum-looping that is “Interlude: Rooftop Animals” well, but the
\nemotional impact doesn’t stay with me. The guitar solo that is
\ninexplicably located in the middle is well-executed, and even
\nwell-mixed into the bathroom, but I feel it’s more of an
\nafterthought than an intentional inclusion.<\/p>\n
When Seger exploits her voice, she creates a very interesting
\nlistening experience, as evidenced by “Walk On Rainbows,” but this
\nimpact is very rarely explored. All too often she sinks into some
\nkind of reflexive style that doesn’t convey her meaning to the
\nlistener.<\/p>\n
The tracks that are destined for singles stand a good chance of
\nsucceeding in the current market. The tracks that are clearly not,
\nsuch as the previously cited ones, seem to contain a diametrically
\nopposed voice and style to their companions.<\/p>\n
I read some of the other reviews of the work; some called it
\ninnovative, synthesizing and one even compared it to Bob Seger. I
\ncouldn’t find such reviews to be further from the truth. It seems
\nderivative at best, and the idea that this woman takes the best of
\nJanis Joplin, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye is laughable.<\/p>\n
\nThe May St. Project<\/i> was difficult to listen to. Not because
\nit is bad music – it isn’t really, but what it is tends to be very
\nobfuscated. Seger hides beneath loud drum loops, meaningless guitar
\nthat sounds tacked on like a post-Phil Spector attempt at
\nminimalism, and synthesizers. My initial reaction was of pure
\nhorror that she was such a phenomenon in Britain; but after several
\nmore listens I began to enjoy some of the songs, and even humming
\nthem as I walked around during the day. She certainly falls into
\nthe common pitfalls – distorted megaphone voice, anger at ex-es,
\nand hooks. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t. If you’re
\nlooking for a fresh new voice, don’t pick this up. But if you want
\nan enjoyable listen, then I would suggest you consider it.<\/p>\n
As a side note, one of the major irritations I had with this CD
\nwas the number of fluctuations in volume. One track would be soft,
\nanother loud. This may be a result of the promo CD, although with
\nthe album in general release across the Atlantic I doubt this to be
\nthe case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":28142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7645],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39538","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-shea-seger","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39538","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39538"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39538"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}