Search - Jackie Leven :: Defending Ancient Springs

Jackie Leven
Defending Ancient Springs
Genres: Folk, Pop

Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
1. You've Lost That Loving Feeling
2. Single Father
3. Paris Blues
4. Defending Ancient Springs
5. Working Man's Love Song
6. I Saw My Love Walk Into C
7. Hand Is Pale With Holy Ki
8. Your Winter Days
9. They Keys To The Forest
10. Morbid Sky

CD Details

All Artists: Jackie Leven
Title: Defending Ancient Springs
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Release Date: 8/29/2000
Album Type: Import
Genres: Folk, Pop
Styles: Easy Listening, Vocal Pop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 711297159127

Synopsis

Album Description

Jackie Leven's production and songwriting ambitions have been on a tear since the release of The Mystery of Love Is Greater Than the Mystery of Death, and have grown wilder with every release. Poetic experimentalism, sonic trickery, and musical juxtapositions that would never pan out in anybody else's work seem to flow like whiskey down a drunk's throat in his. On Defending Ancient Springs, he's taken his greatest chance. Formerly it was him covering "I Say a Little Prayer," a song firmly identified with two female singers (Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin), and even then he placed it at the end of the album. But here, he has taken an American classic and attempted a straight reading of it with the most unlikely of partners. The song is the Righteous Brothers' classic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," which was also done justice by Hall and Oates (who were also from Philly). But Leven decides to cover it

CD Reviews

Ponderous Poetics

R. J MOSS | Alice Springs, Australia | 01/20/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Leven's coverage of the 60s classic, 'You've Lost That Lovin Feeling' is very impressive. David Thomas lends a cracked harmony to it that is just right. At the opposite end of this CD is,'Morbid Sky'; opposite in every sense of emotion & harmonics. Thomas's Ubu connotations offer, on this track, a new dimension to the notion of displacement within the context of Leven's CD. Hard to take seriously that Leven claims the song(from Thomas's, Mirrorman) as part of one of 'the key recordings of our time'(sleeve notes).Not my time! The real problem on this outing is its pretentious poetic stigma. The writing and musical arrangements are leaden and literal. Leven has a good voice, perfect for crooning lullabyes & lovesick ballads. If you're getting on, like me, think Jim Reeves. More recently, think David Sylvan. But, sorry Jackie, the self importance is written too large, even on the packaging. No amount of hot wind can conceal the weakness of the lyrics. The less said the better."