|
Pretty Little Head
|
List Price: $15.98
Our Price: $13.99
Your Save: $ 1.99 ( 12% )
Recent Price Activity
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
 *Eligible orders over $25 ship free
Manufacturer: Black Dove
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0750078016921
Label: Black Dove
Manufacturer: Black Dove
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Black Dove
Release Date: 2006-10-31
Studio: Black Dove
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Few recording artists follow their double-disc debut with another double-disc collection. Nellie McKay isn't the typical recording artist. The singer/songwriter/activist is a restless talent--with a steely backbone. When Columbia refused to release this 23-track set, McKay took a hike and put it out on her own Hungry Mouse imprint. (The song "Columbia Is Bleeding" isn't about her former label, rather the treatment of lab animals at the Ivy League institution.) McKay's creative restlessness brings to mind Robert Pollard and Matt and Eleanor Friedberger, not so much in sound, but in the sense that--for better or for worse--there's nothing she won't try. In "G.E.S." and "Mama & Me," she raps. In the latter, she quips, "See I been livin' with my mama/since I was an embryo/never had Nintendo/saw a lot of Brecht though." In "Tipperary," the British-born New Yorker torches up the joint music hall-style. Then in "Yodel," she, well, yodels. What holds it all together is McKay's flexible, appealing pipes. There's a reason she was cast as Polly Peachum in the Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera--the petite blonde oozes charisma. McKay's actress mother, Robin Pappas, served as executive producer on Pretty Little Head, which features charming duets with fellow iconoclasts k.d. lang ("We Had It Right") and Threepenny co-star Cyndi Lauper ("Beecharmer"). As with Get Away from Me, the album is like a seven-course meal; overwhelming if taken in all at once, but there's a little something here for pretty much everyone. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Comment: Great music and lyrics. Nellie McKay has phenomenal insight and style. Her music is diverse, validating, and inspiring! She has an amazing voice and wit, and her creativity knows no bounds.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprised !!!
Comment: It was a surprise to have discovered Nellie McKay's David via Last.FM when asking for similar s to Jill Tracy. I've ordered the three albums available in Amazon.com and I'm planning to get some tracks available on iTunes.
My favorite still is "Get away from me" tough. If you are readinf this ;-), I would definitely recommend that you try it. last.fm, her myspace page or one of the sites nelliemckay.{com,net,org} which have tracks available. There's also some videos available on youtube.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Promising Potential
Comment: Very, very witty rapid-fire personal and social satire, wrapped in catchy melodies and a vocal style that would win the 1950s and could be great for the occasional retro musical. If one *must* compare to other artists, one might imagine Elvis Costello with a Doris Day style.
But I think one looks at this artist's material thusfar as promising potential rather than perfection in and of itself.
One looks forward to the compositional choices becoming more inviting and more meaningful.
Inviting: When Nora Jones popped onto the scene, her music had something for everyone and very few turn-offs. The lyrics did not require a highly particular sense of humor to appreciate, and the musical style was even-tempered. In contrast, Nellie McKay's choices have resulted in sort of a potpourri, a bit of a jumble -- very musical but idiosyncratically whimsical and very hard to settle into a groove for the entire album. Some individual tunes are similar to the overall style of her albums, which seem to insist on including everything. The cost is what could be a better outcome if a few elements/numbers were better resolved for the context of the overall effect, or left aside for refinement or some later project. In addition, in some cases individual lyrics might be focused to more powerful effect, while mitigating ways in which they might be a turn-off to some listeners.
Meaningful: While truly witty satire is not all that common, it is far more common than the power to make advantageous observations. Assassinations of social norms or obscure individual characters, cleverly done, can be amusing, but are typically not elevating or lasting. In listening to Nellie McKay, one gets the feeling that this person is capable of much more -- of evolving subject matter to beneficially address real-world issues and root causes; that this person's near-focus social commentary reveals a natural aptitude for musical activism or elevation, should she choose. In any case, the artists who stay vibrant are those who are willing to re-invent, who take passionate interest in different approaches at different times (Bob Dylan, Sting, David Bowie, etc., etc.) -- who leverage their versatility to create deep wells of their music and/or who seek to elevate the human soul and condition.
I enjoy "Pretty Little Head" and "Get Away From Me" for their own sakes. However I probably would not have bought them if I did not have a sense that I might be investing in a long, rewarding evolution. If these songs are the results of late teen / early-20s angst, then how wonderful might be the results if their source turns herself to deeper matter! Regardless of that, if Nellie McKay continues to evolve, to follow her evolving her musical and intellectual interests, it should be a thrilling ride!
So far, so good!
Customer Rating:
Summary: when the cutest little kitty comes and hits you in the eye
Comment: I'm really digging Nellie McKay these days and tonight this album is my favorite. K.D. Lang and Cindi Lauper had been off my radar but their collaborations here are real treats.
The first disc is overall the more sober, less spirited of the two but I really enjoyed "The Big One." "Pink Chandelier" is a woozy delight. And of course "Bee Charmer," with Cindi Lauper stirred me up. Cindi Lauper has always been a guilty pleasure for me. "Girls Just Want to have Fun" coincided with the hormonal zenith of my adolescence. Madonna came on strong, Cindi started wrestling, Cindi got an ulcer, and then began the slow fade. But I never forgot her.
The second disc is very solid. "Pounce" clocks in under a minute but is all hook, it'll become tightly entrenched in your retroperitoneal space before the second yowl. I had a very aversive reaction to the creepy baby-talk histrionics in "Mama and Me" but it is has a peculiar elegance. "Columbia is Bleeding" is potent. And "Lali Est Paresseux" is a carefree treat, although I don't know what the lyrics mean, so I'm hoping it isn't some awful tear-jerker.
Thank you for listening, nighty-night.
Customer Rating:
Summary: worst Christmas present ever
Comment: My dad thought this would be right up my alley since I enjoy various singer-songwriters. Having never heard of Nellie McKay, I gave it a chance, and listened to about the first 30 seconds of each track on both discs. Not only does she sing out of tune over half the time, but the melodies and harmonies are so unimaginative, it's practically unbearable to listen to. My dad told me her songs have great lyrics, and maybe they do, but since you can't understand them 90% of the time, who cares? I'm a musician myself, so maybe I'm harsher than the average critic, but I don't know how anyone in his right mind could listen to a whole song without being bored and without wincing at the obvious pitch problems.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
