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Album Review
by SashaS
14-9-2004
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| Nellie McKay: music 4 getting away from |
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Nellie McKay: 'Get Away From Me'
(Columbia)
Nellie McKay - the Yellowbrick road outta Wonderland
If, let’s employ tab-speak for a mo, the singing sensation Joss Stone is a Nina Simone voice emitting out of Elle McPherson [alas fairly shorter] body, then Nellie McKay is a spirited mixture of Norah Jones, Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott overrun by testosterone - and you might get a picture. [The latter comparison has nothing to do with Ms McKay’s sex-appeal, she’s a sylphlike babe.]
In the world that is getting specialized in consuming distinctive and easy-digestible forms, McKay is Tori Amos, Peggy Lee and Laurie Anderson rolled into one. She is a courteous anarchist, a woman who cares not for anyone’s expectations but follows her multi-personality expression with delightful abandon and charming style. Natasha Bedingfield, Nellie Furtado and Pink may variedly shout and inveigle with their carefully crafted sound and image offerings…
Ms McKay simply dives into her creative kitchen and serves a platter that contains buffet of genres: show-tunes, luscious pop of Burt Bacharach and more elaborate like Cole Porter’s material, rap-like songs, soulful and spiritual tracks, a tad folksy, ballads to stop you washing-up, other cuts to throw your worries and start dreaming of fulfilment…
All jazzy-seductive on ‘Manhattan Avenue’ - it is easy to visualise her as a babe spread across a piano alike Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’ - but these stories are about real people [and animals, she being “a proud member of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)” the back cover proclaims]: ‘Ding Dong’ is about an ambulance ride, ‘I Wanna Get Married’ is self-explanatory as is ‘The Dog Song’…
Analytical, witty and ironic in the right measures, emo-bleeding all over, she considers to ‘Change The World’ but that’s not her duty. Rapping is rare and most strikingly occurs on ‘Sari’ but it is of peculiar kind based on scatting; she should certainly give Madonna a lesson or two…
The biggest problem is that this is presented as a double album although the Disc 2 is only over 29 minutes long and No.1 is also on the shortish side, clocking in at less than 32 minutes. Why these couldn‘t be fitted on a single CD is one of life’s conundrums such as - how many computers can you use simultaneously?
Come to think of it, we should launch a new, sub-division of PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Artists. Otherwise, Nellie McKay may remain a cult figure.
8.6/10
SashaS
11-8-2004
Nellie McKay's album 'Get Away From Me' is released 13 September 2004 by Columbia
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