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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Jolie Holland's first album recorded in an actual studio is a sumptuous affair that extends her indie-country and folk sound further into the realms of old-school jazz and country blues. But Escondida is no quaint revivalism; ye olde sounds are made modern by smart lyrics that reference feminist writer/adventurer Isabelle Eberhardt on the whimsical "Old Fashion Morphine", or that speak of "a couple of food stamps and a caffeine buzz" on "Poor Girl". The arrangements are subtle and sophisticated, showing more breadth than those on her debut, Catalpa, with fewer instruments in the way of her superlative voice. Her singing has such soul and energy that she's as often compared to Chan Marshall and Karen Dalton as she is to Billie Holiday. Her update of the old Irish folk song "Tom of Bedlam" is brilliant, just vocals with roiling jazz drums behind it. It's difficult to think of a more compelling sophomore record by a young singer-songwriter, Norah Jones included. --Mike McGonigal, Amazon.com
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Following Holland's spellbinding home-taped debut album Catalpa, I was slightly apprehensive that she'd lose some of the magic recording in a proper studio. I'm delighted to find Escondida is an unqualified triumph. The music is by turns playful, heartbroken, mournful and uplifting. The sound quality this time is pristine but these recordings are packed with the soul, warmth and ingenuity which made Catalpa so captivating.
Holland's entrancing voice alone makes this CD well worth buying but there's so much more which sets this work apart from anything else around. Where else would you find something as weird and wonderful as Mad Tom of Bedlam, a surreal, witchy folk song transformed by a killer swing beat? Or her bluesy beatnik spoof of Old Time Religion which, in Holland's hands, becomes an ode to morphine? Her original songs are just as brilliant and inventive, ranging from ghostly melodies performed on a musical saw to a cheeky romance about a boy with a fetish for trains.
For me, this album confirms Jolie Holland as one of the great musical talents of our time.
Holland's entrancing voice alone makes this CD well worth buying but there's so much more which sets this work apart from anything else around. Where else would you find something as weird and wonderful as Mad Tom of Bedlam, a surreal, witchy folk song transformed by a killer swing beat? Or her bluesy beatnik spoof of Old Time Religion which, in Holland's hands, becomes an ode to morphine? Her original songs are just as brilliant and inventive, ranging from ghostly melodies performed on a musical saw to a cheeky romance about a boy with a fetish for trains.
For me, this album confirms Jolie Holland as one of the great musical talents of our time.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I came across Jolie Holland via the Be Good Tanyas, being intrigued by the distinctive vocal style of the singer on 'The Lakes of Pontchartrain' in particular. Therefore it was a surpise and a delight to find she had several solo albums to her name, and buying this was an impulse well rewarded.
Her material, her arrangements and her delivery show real freshness and originality, and she resolutely avoids tired formulae, as her gloriously offbeat delivery of a song like 'Mad Tom Of Bedlam' demonstrates. Elsewhere she celebrates, tongue in cheek, the delights of 'Old-fashioned Morphine' and embraces extinction with cheerful enthusiasm in 'Goodbye California', an uplifting and catchy meditation on mortality delivered in her gorgeous trademark Texas drawl. I hope there's much more to come.
Her material, her arrangements and her delivery show real freshness and originality, and she resolutely avoids tired formulae, as her gloriously offbeat delivery of a song like 'Mad Tom Of Bedlam' demonstrates. Elsewhere she celebrates, tongue in cheek, the delights of 'Old-fashioned Morphine' and embraces extinction with cheerful enthusiasm in 'Goodbye California', an uplifting and catchy meditation on mortality delivered in her gorgeous trademark Texas drawl. I hope there's much more to come.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A roommate of mine would play this CD on Saturday mornings while she was cooking breakfast and after hearing it a couple times from my room I would come out and sit just to listen. Somehow the music fit the mood of late morning mixed with the aroma of eggs and such. Now I have it for myself and Jolie Holland's sad, satirical, yet energetic music is a memory into that time. Thanks Marit.
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