Word: songe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...lyrics on El Oso move through all the typical themes: lost love, the open road, drug addiction and self-glorification. What makes the lyrics of the album exceptional is the constant tension Doughty and Co. create between the words and the music. "Pensacola," perhaps the most beautiful song on the album, is an excellent example of Soul Coughing's elegant alliance between sound and language. The song opens with an underwater, ambient effect of waves of bass and high synth strings. Doughty enters with a uncharacteristically melancholy and amazingly seductive voice to sing about suffocating love. As the line "like...
...words, the only places on the album where Soul Coughing obviously falters are the few moments where the music and language do not quite fit together. Occasionally, the lyrics get a little caught up in exorbitant verbosity and leave the music stumbling behind. "St. Louise is Listening" (a song as close to garage rock as Soul Coughing gets) and "Maybe I'll Come Down" (a bland ballad that strains Doughty's voice and listener's patience) are two songs that should have remained poems. In both, a surplus of syllables obviously constrains the music--Doughty is overly intellectual and whiny...
...dance that was starting in 10 minutes. As a result, Better Than Ezra was forced to cut back and rush through their encore, losing some of their entertaining zeal in the process. Despite the restrictions of club management, Better Than Ezra still got the crowd jumping with their final song, "Desperately Wanted," in which they turned the house lights on above the charged audience. Overall, the concert was emotional and energetic, ranging from touching and sentimental melodies to amusingly obnoxious stage antics. This variety of music and attitude are reflections of the new sound of Better Than Ezra...
...Does Your Garden Grow?, displays the talents of bassist Tom Drummond and drummer Travis McNabb. In "One More Murder," the first single off the new album and on the X-Files summer movie soundtrack, Griffin's vocals are restrained and the guitar is absent for much of the song. Drummond and McNabb combine for some funky bass lines and techno beats, which are also prevalent on the first track, "Je ne m'en Souviens pas." More than ever, Better Than Ezra is more than just a playground for the diverse and profound talents of Kevin Griffin, upon which the previous...
...first line: "Let's party, let's get down"), but slow down with the gently acoustical "Riverwide", two examples of the wide rhythm and tempo variations that Crow infuses into the album. Crow's idol, Bob Dylan, originally recorded "Mississippi" but was displeased with the result. He gave the song to Crow to record in her own way, and she gave it a distinctly country sound and fast tempo, something that could never be found on Sheryl Crow...