Review of Laura Nyro's Mother's Spiritual
In the words of Charles Kuralt, here begins something new.
A good friend of mine turned 50 a few years ago and to celebrate she challenged herself to do 50 new things in the year. I loved this idea and co-opted it for myself. Coming up with 50 new things is not easy but then neither is living so we'll just have to make do.
As I was combing my brain for ideas, I stumbled across a Twitter challenge which involved finding the number one song on your birthday for every year you were alive. This was similar to something I did when I turned 40. For that birthday, I bought for myself a song from each year I had been on the earth (1969-2009). That's 41 songs for the pedantic among you. I admit that I prefer that to the number one song meme because the latter severely restricts the number of songs people might experience. At most you would ever have 52 unique number one songs in a year so only 52 people would need to do the challenge before it became redundant. And in reality, number one songs often hang on for multiple weeks so 52 is probably much too high an estimate. Besides, how many new thoughts and words are really needed for "You Light Up My Life"?
So to make things a bit more challenging and interesting, I decided that one of my 50 for 50 items would be to buy an album I had no familiarity with from a year I had been alive and review it. So there will be 51 album reviews, hopefully one a week. You can expect them to be highly ill informed. I will do no research on the albums or artists and I have no formal musical training. What I do have is a love of music, almost all genres, and a willingness to expose my ignorance and poorly formed opinions to the world. I am an old white male after all. It appears to be expected of me.
And with the stage set,
my first album is:
Laura Nyro
Mother's Spiritual
1984
Sometime around 1984, I remember my father coming home with some new CDs. When you are young, it is so easy to think of the world as fixed. Everyone older than you is old. Your house is the only house your family ever lived in. Your family's music collection is whatever albums Dad had accumulated over the years. My Dad had pretty interesting tastes: Simon and Garfunkel, Broadway, Henry Mancini, Moody Blues, Mason Williams, some jazz and classical. Us kids always found something we enjoyed in the mix. So it was unusual to me when he came home with new music and specifically things I had never heard of. Laura Nyro was one such artist and even he admitted he didn't know much about her but had always wanted to check her out. I had never thought of my dad as musically adventurous before that day.
But I was a teenager so I didn't really care and never listened to any of the stuff he bought that day. I was into my own scene: mostly alternative and punk at that point. And so these many years later, three years after my father's death and one year after my mother's, I decided to start my 50 for 50 with Laura Nyro. And perhaps more recklessly, I choose her 1984 offering, Mother's Spiritual, rather than her more well known late 60s, early 70s offerings. Finally, I chose Nyro because she was a major influence of my favorite artist, Todd Rundgren and I had always wanted to check out her work. I knew she had a distinctive songwriting style, in the Carole King vein, but really had no experience with it.
So what do I think?
Laura's voice is instantly recognizable without being overly distinct (although if Paula Cole didn't listen to a ton of Nyro, I would be shocked.) And her voice sounds great on this record. Clearly this is a thematic album built around women and motherhood and she seems perfectly suited to deliver the message. The lyrics are interesting but not terribly lyrical. Hardly surprising for an album that has its roots in political and societal topics. I love her message in general and especially the opening line to Right to vote "Thank you Sirs, for the right to vote/ Bet you didn't know I had a voice in my throat..." The sarcasm is withering.
But mostly I am struck by the subtle anachronisms in the recording. This is really a record both of its time and out of it too. It is impossible not to notice and, indeed, bathe in the '80s light jazz guitar sound that permeates this record. It is cleaner than a dorm room the day before students move in. But the song structures are classic. This sounds like late '60s, early '70s Carole King pop but transported into the '80s.
Does it work?
I honestly don't know but I have found myself humming songs from this album way more than I thought I would. None of them are instant classics for me. No song on here has that hook that makes me go "YES, I want to buy everything by this artist and listen only to them forever". And yet they do stay with you. Maybe feminist rock mantras are good for the soul and ears. Maybe Dad was on to something.
A good friend of mine turned 50 a few years ago and to celebrate she challenged herself to do 50 new things in the year. I loved this idea and co-opted it for myself. Coming up with 50 new things is not easy but then neither is living so we'll just have to make do.
As I was combing my brain for ideas, I stumbled across a Twitter challenge which involved finding the number one song on your birthday for every year you were alive. This was similar to something I did when I turned 40. For that birthday, I bought for myself a song from each year I had been on the earth (1969-2009). That's 41 songs for the pedantic among you. I admit that I prefer that to the number one song meme because the latter severely restricts the number of songs people might experience. At most you would ever have 52 unique number one songs in a year so only 52 people would need to do the challenge before it became redundant. And in reality, number one songs often hang on for multiple weeks so 52 is probably much too high an estimate. Besides, how many new thoughts and words are really needed for "You Light Up My Life"?
So to make things a bit more challenging and interesting, I decided that one of my 50 for 50 items would be to buy an album I had no familiarity with from a year I had been alive and review it. So there will be 51 album reviews, hopefully one a week. You can expect them to be highly ill informed. I will do no research on the albums or artists and I have no formal musical training. What I do have is a love of music, almost all genres, and a willingness to expose my ignorance and poorly formed opinions to the world. I am an old white male after all. It appears to be expected of me.
And with the stage set,
my first album is:
Laura Nyro
Mother's Spiritual
1984
Sometime around 1984, I remember my father coming home with some new CDs. When you are young, it is so easy to think of the world as fixed. Everyone older than you is old. Your house is the only house your family ever lived in. Your family's music collection is whatever albums Dad had accumulated over the years. My Dad had pretty interesting tastes: Simon and Garfunkel, Broadway, Henry Mancini, Moody Blues, Mason Williams, some jazz and classical. Us kids always found something we enjoyed in the mix. So it was unusual to me when he came home with new music and specifically things I had never heard of. Laura Nyro was one such artist and even he admitted he didn't know much about her but had always wanted to check her out. I had never thought of my dad as musically adventurous before that day.
But I was a teenager so I didn't really care and never listened to any of the stuff he bought that day. I was into my own scene: mostly alternative and punk at that point. And so these many years later, three years after my father's death and one year after my mother's, I decided to start my 50 for 50 with Laura Nyro. And perhaps more recklessly, I choose her 1984 offering, Mother's Spiritual, rather than her more well known late 60s, early 70s offerings. Finally, I chose Nyro because she was a major influence of my favorite artist, Todd Rundgren and I had always wanted to check out her work. I knew she had a distinctive songwriting style, in the Carole King vein, but really had no experience with it.
So what do I think?
Laura's voice is instantly recognizable without being overly distinct (although if Paula Cole didn't listen to a ton of Nyro, I would be shocked.) And her voice sounds great on this record. Clearly this is a thematic album built around women and motherhood and she seems perfectly suited to deliver the message. The lyrics are interesting but not terribly lyrical. Hardly surprising for an album that has its roots in political and societal topics. I love her message in general and especially the opening line to Right to vote "Thank you Sirs, for the right to vote/ Bet you didn't know I had a voice in my throat..." The sarcasm is withering.
But mostly I am struck by the subtle anachronisms in the recording. This is really a record both of its time and out of it too. It is impossible not to notice and, indeed, bathe in the '80s light jazz guitar sound that permeates this record. It is cleaner than a dorm room the day before students move in. But the song structures are classic. This sounds like late '60s, early '70s Carole King pop but transported into the '80s.
Does it work?
I honestly don't know but I have found myself humming songs from this album way more than I thought I would. None of them are instant classics for me. No song on here has that hook that makes me go "YES, I want to buy everything by this artist and listen only to them forever". And yet they do stay with you. Maybe feminist rock mantras are good for the soul and ears. Maybe Dad was on to something.
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