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Album Club
27-02-2013, 20:18
Album Club: 27.02.2013 Lyle Lovett - Pontiac (1987) (Vinyl, CD)

Many thanks to Keith (keiths) for his offering for Album Club this week.

http://o.scdn.co/300/56fa771cc38304a918aba1e02909b006dc6398f5



It's a country album. Sorry.

From 'The album that introduced me to Lyle Lovett...' (http://www.epinions.com/review/musc_mu-121363/content_465030319748?sb=1)
Lyle Lovett has a style that can be difficult to classify. Some people think of him as a country artist, but a lot of his music includes elements of jazz, rock, gospel, and swing. It's an eclectic sound as unconventional as his famous looks and sense of humor. Lovett wrote all of the songs on Pontiac, demonstrating an impressive knack for spinning his quirky take on life into a catchy tune. The first few songs are a little country, while the second group are a little jazzy.


Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_(album)


Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/album/0KPzqWVZelLBCV1Fhs4s6r

YouTube

1. If I Had a Boat
GtHYzcfShQw

2. Give Back My Heart
8PBWNzctt4Y

3. I Loved you Yesterday

4. Walk Through the Bottomland

5. L. A. County
3uGyClRhGg0

6. She's No Lady
4o3m1FwhusY

7. M-O-N-E-Y

8. Black and Blue

9. Simple Song
4NK6utgyF2c

10. Pontiac
rEk7_Y4JRA0

11. She's Hot To Go

Tim
27-02-2013, 21:08
It's a country album. Sorry.
Hallelujah . . . . . :yesbruv:

This is going to be fun for y'all :lol:

synsei
28-02-2013, 08:52
This impressed me muchly. What happened? I used to detest country music, I must be getting old... :lol: 7/10

The Grand Wazoo
28-02-2013, 09:01
A while back, I had my interest tweaked by Lyle Lovett's perfomance on the BBC4 'Songwriter's Circle' programme where he performed with John Hiatt and Joe Ely. I was very impressed with that and a couple of the songs he performed there are on this album, so I got myself a copy.
I'll be giving it a spin in the next couple of days.
Great choice Keith!

synsei
28-02-2013, 09:09
Currently spinning this for a second time and I must say it is rather good. The standard of musicianship is excellent and Lovett's vocals are exquisite.

Tim
28-02-2013, 09:26
Currently spinning this for a second time and I must say it is rather good. The standard of musicianship is excellent and Lovett's vocals are exquisite.
Fantastic Dave and an inspired choice by Keith :)

Some people are going to take this statement the wrong way, but I think country (but what is country?) is something you grow into after serving a long apprenticeship of listening to what 'most of us' listen too. I first discovered Lyle Lovett in the mid 90's at a local dealers, when he was demonstrating the different bass capabilities of speakers. He put Joshua Judges Ruth on and my jaw dropped on hearing "She's Already Made Up Her Mind". I hated country up to then, or what I perceived as country, as Lyle is really alt. country . . . this ain't hill billy music folks and I love it ;)

Great pick Keith and I love that people are liking it too.

MartinT
04-03-2013, 22:39
I love Emmylou Harris and some Dolly Parton and I quite like a few other country performers such as Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter and even Poco and Chris Isaak, who are on the sidelines of country. Pontiac is a very well constructed album and well performed by everyone. It's meticulously produced and sounds very good.

And it does absolutely nothing for me. Not a thing. Nada. Sorry.

The Grand Wazoo
04-03-2013, 23:06
It's a great album, worth getting just for 'Simple Song' I think.

8/10 from me.

Tim
05-03-2013, 01:36
This gets 8/10 from me also, I think I prefer Joshua Judges Ruth, but maybe because it was the first Lovett album I heard, I also really like Natural Forces which is an excellent album.

Somehow though I still feel that country is a hard sell on AoS :scratch:

keiths
05-03-2013, 02:11
Thanks all for the comments. I bought my dad this album (on vinyl) for Christmas shortly after it was released. I don't know how he'd heard of Lyle Lovett, but he asked specifically for it as he wanted to expand his country listening beyond Johnny, Willie, Waylon and George - whch were his staple diet at the time.

He loved it from the first listen (as did I) and it quickly became his favourite record. Even when his Alzheimer's was fairly advanced (a couple of years ago), he'd still laugh out loud at the "Kiss my ass, I've bought a boat" line and, much more recently, there would still be a spark of recognition when it was played.

When Alex asked for up-front submissions for Album Club, it was only a couple of weeks after my dad passed away, so it seemed an obvious (if somewhat emotional) choice for me. 'Joshua Judges Ruth' may well be the more satisfying album over the long term (and is certainly the better-sounding one), but I feel 'Pontiac' to be a better introduction to Lyle Lovett due to the variety of styles on display.

It's been great to listen to this record (I have it both on Vinyl and CD - there's nothing to choose between them) when lining up my submission, though more than a few tears were shed...

Barry
06-03-2013, 18:22
"It's country Jim - but not as we know it".

Normally I detest country music as maudling sentimental tosh, and avoid it at all cost. The nearest I get is with some Linda Ronstadt and Eva Cassidy.

However this is different. Like Chris, I saw the 'Songwriters Circle' programme on BBC4 (and also Lovett's appearence on 'Later') and to my surprise I was quite taken with his performance.

7/10 from me. (I might even buy the album!)

Good choice Keith. It's always good to be introduced, or reminded of new things.

Alex_UK
06-03-2013, 20:54
Never really heard any Lyle Lovett before, although I remembered him marrying Julia Roberts so I knew of him. Really enjoyed this album, another 8/10 from me and I will be getting a copy.

The Grand Wazoo
06-03-2013, 21:02
It's stuff like this where pigeon-hole genres like 'country' really don't help at all.
Calling this album country music is just plain wrong and that description will immediately put a lot of people off because they think they don't like country music. I'd think that when they heard it, a lot of 'country' fans would hate much of it!
It's music that has roots in all sorts of different styles and sticking it into the country bag does it a great disservice.

MartinT
06-03-2013, 22:14
I never cared much for categorising music. I just listen to it and know if I like it or not. Couldn't care less what pigeon-hole it falls into.

One of the worst is 'classical music'. What's that then? About 30 completely different genres of music linked only by the types of instrument used.

Bazil
07-03-2013, 17:57
A album full of well made songs, which I don't like apart from Simple Song, but I would imagine lots of people think highly of it. 4/10

Tim
08-03-2013, 01:03
It's music that has roots in all sorts of different styles and sticking it into the country bag does it a great disservice.
Agreed Chris, as I said earlier . . . what is country? I think what most people think of as country bears very little resemblance to many of the modern genres described as country. There's so many off shoots, alt, crossover, americana, outlaw, western, the list goes on . . . . it is a shame that folk seem to dismiss 'country' music, or music they *think* is country (or country & western), but I go back to my first statement . . . . what is country?

It will be interesting to see what people make of my next album club choice :eyebrows:

The Grand Wazoo
08-03-2013, 01:14
Pigeon-holes are just bad. Nowt worse than a sub genre...........except a sub sub genre!

Clothears
08-03-2013, 18:34
I've listened to this a couple of times on Spotify now. A well made, nicely performed album that is hard to find fault with. Having said that it doesn't do much for me I'm sorry, so wont be playing it again. I've scored it a 6/10