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| The Gospel of Sophisti-Pop |
| band: Black, Alyse |
| Album: Too Much & Too Lovely |
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A VOICE THAT EMBRACES THE WORLD
"Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before." ~ Joseph Campbell
"Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again." ~ Tori Amos
Alyse Black has so sultry a sound, you may be tempted to swoon over the tune. If you listen casually, you'll hear love songs. That's right enough. Love is the subject of every song, but there's not a torch song in the bunch. Alyse is more generous than that, and her sensuality is closer to Elizabeth Bishop that Liz Phair. There's more William James on this album than Henry Miller, more Joseph Campbell than Jim Beam. Her inflection and phrasing have the sensuality of a Billie Holliday throwing herself at you, but Alyse is embracing the whole world in most of these songs. She has benefited from the spirit of Tori Amos, and she has lived enough to know enough to deflect that line you may be intending to use on this gorgeous redhead after the show.
Alyse grew up with Ragtime, that great neglected first truly American music. Her father fostered the love of music, and taught her to play a little piano and to follow her heart. She first hit the stage at the age of six, discovered and abandoned the violin between 10 and 11, and discovered the most expressive instrument at her disposal at 12 when she began to train her voice. She's seen the world living in France, Germany and Prague, had the sense to study business and the courage to leave the corporate world to become a busker on the streets of Pike Place Market in Seattle. She recorded an EP with her samba love-song jazz group "Thursty Love" with the intriguing title "Musical Chocolate for the Discerning Ear." With all that life behind her, and the varieties of musical experience, her solo album "Too Much & Too Lovely" is a fully realized, focused and personal album. She is a generous and sensual singer possessed of a self-awareness that delivers more wisdom than certainty.
The sound of this album is deliciously simple, her voice lush and relaxed, but never languid. She is as some of that Chet Baker immediacy, with expressiveness, control and color similar to Nancy Wilson. Among current singers Inara George and Regina Spektor are in a similar category. But all comparisons are lies. Alyse has a beautiful voice and the ability to color a phrase without giving the audience a singing lesson. She is expressive and immediate singing with enough heart and skill to bring the song home in a personal way. After listening to this album carefully, I feel like I've been hugged.
THE SONGS:
01 EMELINE is not really the tribute song it may seem. Alyse brings a level of intelligence to her work that is felt rather than understood. The treble attack of a tremolo enhanced guitar give this song an edge. She tips her hat to the deeper concept with the lines: "You do not end, and I do not begin…" There is a swooning appreciation for the other in the song who sings of New Mexico, Colorado and Mother Russia. "How you mean so much / How I'd dream so much / How I'd be so much / Like you." I found a singer named Emeline on the Internet—the Queen of Haitian Song—but it was a coincidence. Alyse's response is extraordinarily articulate and may give the reader a clue just what we are dealing with here:
"Emeline is symbolic. Me is lost in the word. Yet me is part of the word. Feeling inadequate. Imitation and self-rejection. And realizing that humans are not so isolated and we all blend into one another - which can lead to self-acceptance and self-love - from which can lead to true love of "others." From there, from know I am you and you are me, you can make real art and make a real "difference in the world." I am out to inspire people to follow their passion. To be full-out in their lives. No dress rehearsals. No yesterdays or tomorrows. Just a series of today. And maybe not even another today after this today.
But the Haitian song is part of that other, that is not other at all. :)"
I hazard to guess that this existential love song will get requested by a few Emilies and Emelines. It's a sweet and catchy love song. All that may be a bit esoteric, but it has depth and a little of the sense of humor of that old Buddhist flavored joke: "What did the Holy Man say to the hot dog vender? Make me one with everything." If you can find that kind of intelligence, warmth and humor in the Top 40, and I'll buy you a hot dog.
02 WOULDN'T IT BE NICE has an infectious laid back grove and an immediate quality to the voice that is genuinely seductive. Feels like life itself has given permission for a great big hug on a beautiful day. The muted trumpet in this wishful, wistful song hints at Chet Baker's honest sentiment. There's a wah wah pedal judiciously employed for a bluesy touch of Steely Dan. The feeling of a perfect day is belied in this wish of a song by the need to forgive. It's a song of hope, not a perfect memory. "Time to spare / Love to give / Peace of mind / And time to live." It's a time when the "Stars are up / Stakes are too." Wouldn't it be nice if we all could "Kiss and make up— A whole new shoe." Let's hope.
03 COMPLETE WITH SOUND EFFECTS does not disappoint. This is a song full of humor with enough poetic meaning to avoid any simple Spike Jones comparison. "I am exactly the same / Manufacturing Six Sigma." Now some of you in the corporate world are laughing. "Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection." Found that on the Internet. It's a business term for a "data driven approach" that eliminates defects. Alyse did time in the corporate world, and hasn't rejected what works. As a singer, the compensation is different. "Due to the economies of scale / I'm as cheap as cheap can be / Who cares for unique products / What else would you want from me?" This is a bouncy song, with a cagey lyric. Alyse doesn't have to shout to be heard. A wink is sufficient, and a nod in response.
04 SALLY ALL MY DAYS is a personal song about the singer's sister. The beginning sets an ominous tone in the lyric, but the music is playful and sweet. "As the plane spiraled to the ground, / Did they perchance think of me? / I remember now Dad's last words, / 'Goodbye my Little Cherubine.'" The singer now spends her days making "buttons," and dreams of "button mountains." As with any poem, this song is a puzzle. "And no I know I'm not her mother. / I could never take that place. / But Iknow that I will love her. / All my days. All my days. All days." I am tempted to read this song as the loss of innocence as the singer watches as Sally "dances in the street." The buttons may be memorials to a father lost in a spiraling plane crash. There is a song called "Cherubine" by Bloem de Ligny which explores similar territory with the lines "Make me a mother / Make me a father." Whether Alyse actually has a sister named Sally or no, the joy of seeing a child at play, and the love of that childhood, the willingness to make sacrifices to make that young life sweet, all honor innocence and youthful invention. A poem is the best definition of a poem.
05 SHY is as direct a song as there is on this album. The voice and guitar say it all with the brushes, bass, and sweetener along for the build. "I've noticed that we really / Never get a second change, / And I remember last time I didn't / Ask you to dance." It's good to hear her voice with nothing up her sleeve. Who hasn't lived long enough to regret a moment's hesitation?
06 LOVE TONIGHT? ~ I daresay is another love song to the infinite. Alyse is as sensual as any singer I have heard, but doesn't have a torch song in the bunch. Perhaps I've read too much of William James, but the lines: "I'm out again on blackened night. / You come to me – my candlelight," feel more ethereal than corporal. "Can you give me your love tonight?" There's something other than a hook up in mind here. "Wait for me on our porch swing. / I'll come to you a caroling. / Kiss your cheek up on my toes. / Around the world to you I go." Best guess, this song is about the illusive sense of self. "Your words are my ecstasy." Poetry is the sense of doubleness in things.
07 CALL IT QUITS has a little of the Twilight Zone in the guitar. "They all call it quits / So how can we call this love?" There's a gossipy voice talking in the background. The voice has a dying fall. The big question at the end: "Do I want to be a wife?" It's that moment of drama when a decision has to be made, and no choice seems right. "But they all call it quits / So how can we call this real?" The twilight of a relationship, or a fresh beginning. You decide.
08 STOOD FOR STAND FOR has a sweet Chet Baker beginning, and the voice full of breath and emotion yet full of song and deeply felt. This is a jazz number for the late night. The old 88 with a tasteful touch, a muted trumpet, and a double bass. Alyse treats this song with the emotion and of an after hours heartbreaker played after last call. "If I stood for what I stand for in you, / Would you maybe have taken a stand for us, too?" It's almost a private moment. It's not about a relationship that died, but one that climbed that "mountain so many failed to climb." Still, there was a moment when it would have been so right not to have stood alone.
09 DON'T GIVE ME ONE KISS reveals the longing for the easier sensuality of forbidden love. Alyse sings of the "masochistic funk" considering the man not taken at that two roads divergent place. "'Cause darlin' if we were kissin', / I'd soon be missin' / All that respect I'd christened / You with. / So goes the myth, / But I'll tell you this – / Don't give me one kiss." Okay, this is more Emily Dickenson than William James. Simplicity and honesty are enough to carry the song without those "snake in the grass" metaphors. It's enough to make the unintended object of desire in the song go home happy, but alone.
10 THIS MACHINE has a little keyboard techno in the introduction, quickly abandoned for a cool drumkit and masterful piano. "My life machine" has the T.V. telling the truth. "Reporters know objective truth." Alyse sings just fine with her tongue in her cheek. A little certainty can spoil the truth. Still and all, the efficiency of a life without doubts has a certain dubious appeal. Hey, Alyse! Wanta' go back to corporate life?
11 SO MUCH BRIGHTER continues the consideration if the road not taken. This time perhaps a little advice to the deader and safer among us. Take a chance Cecil! Alyse thought she was "wasting her words / When she saw your binder's Gucci ad." Guess the choice is clear sometimes to own something or be somebody. Advice sung this sweetly is never caustic. "Be what they want. Be demure. Be politer. / How can I show you your future's so much brighter?"
12 TOO MUCH & TOO LOVELY might be the sweetest, simplest expression ever written in song of Joseph Campbell's edict to "follow you bliss." The song is set simple with a string bass and percussion provided by Alyse with the snap of her fingers. The message of the album is carried in this song, and has been consistent through the songs. These verses may save you from certainty and delusion:
From the very first moment you gave me
You were my sun, moon, stars – all that I could see.
Lessons later, laughing larks turned pale with stress –
As I watched you give time and again your very best.
Now as I see your blue eyes true,
My words fail to persuade you…
The world is just too much & too lovely –
Too quick to go; too willing to stay.
And you are just too will-full and grace-full –
Too charming to draw, too sweet to trace.
To spend your life cause up
In these mindless races.
Instead of let air grow rife, stale, unspoken –
My words of love come out in the open.
I can't wait and watch this thing overtake you –
Too much stress will tear you apart – you know it's true.
Please don't make me give you up.
Please won't you call it enough?
THE BAND:
Alyse Black, singer-songwriter
Hans Brehmer, pianist
Mark Oi, guitarist
Patrick McDanel, bass
Cody Rahn, drums
Jeff Miller, trumpet
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