The Stride-Rite Kid

That's my new MC name, unless you didn't know. As soon as I get some dope beats, and fresh rhymes, I'll be mixing it up home school style on the geek tip. I'm writing again on all fronts, so there will be stuffs for all people. And certainly there will be stuff here. Or else. I thought I'd ahead and do this CD review before I get honey in the gears, which is not a euphemism, but I feel would cause things to slow down considerably. Meanwhile, I just opened up a cracker and there was no cheese inside. How dare you Austin?!?! I knew I should have gone with Lance. Anyway, so CD review. If you read my companion's blog, you know she's probably the one you want to go to for all your reviews, as I'm bad at that. But, I did buy this CD, and liked it so much that I felt you all should know. As you can probably already guess from the last sentence I LOVE THIS ALBUM. Which may skew my review a little bit, but that's what all this is about, right? Giving you my opinion. Gazing over the reviews at Amazon I can see there's been (almost) nothing but praise for Sara's album, and yeah, it's pretty darn good, but her detractors make some fair points. I think I'll go over what's wrong first, and then stress all that's right. Firstly, it is a little overproduced. Go listen to Sara sing live somewhere. Her voice which I mention before, is soul stirringly good. Like, really good. She has this deep soul, funky thing that she makes good use of. She's the kind of person that makes you realize how little talent you have yourself. And yet, there is so much production on a lot of these tracks, that you can lose how good her voice is. Like, listen to Bottle It Up Live and then the one from the album, you'll see what I mean. And leading up the next point, they (the producers, I imagine) didn't let her let her voice really go. I mean, there's such emotion in some of these songs, and you get the feeling that she's holding herself back. Listen to Vegas to see the potential.

Okay, okay, on to the good. Yes. 1) The lyrics. OMG. Listen to Between the Lines and try not to think of, oh, I dunno, EVERY RELATIONSHIP YOU'VE EVER HAD. It's that good, and deep. She hits the mark on about 99% of the songs, and while they're mostly about love, you don't feel like she's rehashing the topic in an annoying way. Once or twice her wording rings a little false, but like twice on the whole album, and I don't know if it's her writing, or the world that created the atmosphere where certain phrases bring up certain emotions. Yes, I just blamed that on the world. I mean, I would like to point you in the direction of my favorite line of the whole album: "No right minds could wrong be, this many times". Now, she could have just as easily switched around that be and wrong, and you would have had your boring same old, same old. But she did it up home school style and made it awesome. Then again: She has a song called MorningSide. Which, I don't even think is a word, and when I first heard it, it reminded me of this storage place we have here in NC called Morningstar, which now that I think about it, is Satan. Anyway, the title just put me off, though now, it's one of my favorite tracks on the album. That's another thing with this album. For me, my favorite song changes about every three days, and then when I make it a complete revolution, I go back to the beginning. They're all great. I did read a review that was like her piano playing is sub par, but I'm not an expert in that, and it sounded fine to me.

Anyway, also, her album is a little funky. Like, not stinky, but you know, funk. Stax Records, Isaac Hayes, the whole thing. But she does it in a totally accessible way. So, I'd suggest that everybody listen to it, but if you're a fan of funk, or think you might be, then you'll find a little extra enjoyment in it. Okay, time for the all important score. I know sometimes I'm a little heavy handed with these, and I have to take into account how I'll feel later on. This makes it a little hard for me to make these all on a reliable scale, but since this is the first CD review I'm doing, I can do whatever I want. Ahem. So, on Terri's Scale of Albums, with 0 being A Confederacy of Dunces, and 10 being every Dixie Chicks album ever produced, then I'd give Sara a 9. I really would have gone better but I've got to put a lid on these things. Is there no middle ground!?!?! So, go pick up this album, please, it was like 13 dollars at Best Buy. It's guaranteed to please on some level. So, take it from the Stride-Rite Kid, and I'll leave you with my second fave quote from this album:

"So, I learned to listen through silence." -- her voice just sells it.

** Meanwhile, apparently poppy stuff is good now. Who knew? Anyway, check this.
Playing: The Long Walk Back