Best album of the year!
J. Passe | Charlotte, NC, USA | 01/22/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I set the "Recently Added" section of iTunes on shuffle and sat down to read the paper. Suddenly, this amazing wall of sound made me walk back to the computer, wondering "What was that?" It was Maura Kennedy's "New Way to Live," sounding like Belly, Tonya Donnelly's mid-80s band, only better.
Maura new solo cd, "Parade of Echoes" is aptly named. The echoes include elements of Buddy Holly, Fairport Convention, U2, Phil Spector's girl groups from the fifties, Disappear Fear, and, of course, heavy doses of the Beatles. There are even echoes of early Kennedys' songs, especially when Pete Kennedy's tasteful guitar solos fill the spaces between Maura's haunting, romantic, and mystical lyrics. The production is exceptional, with a very clean sound, and always a perfect balance between vocals and instruments. It is, clearly, a labor of love,
This is, by far, my favorite album of the year. It gets better each time I hear it."