Search - Grant-Lee Phillips :: Nineteeneighties

Awsome new twist on our eighties favorites

Elena A. Dunn | 01/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Grant Lee Phillips honors these songs yet he does it in a style all his own. His renditions stay with you because of his haunting vocals and the awsome orchestration. His choice of a harmonium on Love MY Way gives it that same etherial feel as the origional without being a copy in any way.

Love this CD. (Grant's not bad either...note album cover!)"

Not the right interpreter for these songs

Eric J. Anderson | Ankeny, Iowa | 07/10/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This album is not unpleasant. Grant Lee Phillips can be a great entertainer. I own his first two solo albums, and am quite happy with them.



Grant has a very distinctive style of singing and some peculiar vocal affectations. His singing is as distinctive as Alanis Morrisette or Tom Waits. Once you know him, he is instantly recognizable. In his own songs, he seems to be able to make these quirks work for him. With this collection of cover songs, the result sounds slightly odd to me.



Mostly the problem here is monotony. Nothing seems very lively. Grant sounds a little burned out. If these are tunes Grant really loved, he hasn't convinced me. Maybe with some inspired backing musicians and about ten cups of coffee, Grant could have laid into these songs and wrung something new and interesting from them. This may be pleasant music for relaxing, or background for doing household chores, but I'd really expect more from Grant Lee Phillips."