New album: The Way I’m Livin’
Artist: Lee Ann Womack
Label: Sugar Hill/Welk
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Lee Ann Womack’s “The Way I’m Livin’” is one of if not the strongest albums of her 15-year recording career.
Stripped of any Nashville production glitz, this new collection finds Womack in fine voice. Production duties were handled by her husband Frank Liddell, a seasoned producer who has helped craft hits for Eli Young and Miranda Lambert. Culling material from the likes of Mindy Smith, Neil Young and Brennen Leigh, “The Way I’m Livin’” is a well paced throwback to the days when country music actually sounded like country music.
Melancholy replaces the traditional tear-in-beer country mood on much of what’s here, particularly on “Don’t Listen To The Wind” and “Chances Are.” It’s tough to imagine Womack being on pins and needles worrying about the object of her affection being interested in her, but she sings as if that could actually be a possibility. Womack’s take on Neil Young’s “Out On The Weekend” is unquestionably smoother than the original, but she still hits all the emotional buttons that make the song work.
Like any good album there are subtle shifts in style and mood, the most successful being the driving gospel of “All His Saints” and the borderline rocking “Tomorrow Night In Baltimore.” Be it ballad or brawler, Womack has the pipes and charisma to handle it.
There is probably no place on country radio for music as pure as the kind Womack has conjured here, but anyone willing to take a chance on something that hasn’t been played to death will be greatly rewarded.
Classic album: Superunknown
Artist: Soundgarden
Label: A&M
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Released at the height of Nirvana and Pearl Jam mania, Soundgarden’s “Superunknown” was as close to perfect as rock music could get in 1994.
The band clumsily made a promise early in their career to never sign with a major label, and — believe it or not — many self-important rock snobs gave the band a fair amount of flak for upgrading to A&M Records. To their credit, the band (much like R.E.M.) was able to go big time while still progressing as artists. If A&M did made any suggestions in regards to their direction, either the suggestions were ignored or they were, in fact, good suggestions.
“Super-unknown” is, to date, the best collection of songs the band ever put together, and while their trademark heaviness is all over the record, other forms of expression (gasp! acoustic guitars) were allowed into the mix. This experimentation yielded the radio hits “Fell on Black Days,” “Black Hole Sun,” “Spoonman” and “My Wave.” Further investigation reveals the deep album cuts (“Half,” “Limo Wreck”) to be oozing with originality and power.
“Superunknown” (along with Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Pearl Jam’s “Vitalogy”) was the cream of the brief and in retrospect slightly overhyped Seattle scene. Although Soundgarden may have ridden the PR tide of grunge out of Seattle, with “Superunknown,” they proved they were a world-class band capable of crafting powerful music with staying power.
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Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com.