Chris Lee, Plays & Sings Torch'd Songs, Charivari Hymns & Oriki Blue-Marches (Smells Like) 9
Just when you think that great singer-songwriters were long lost relics of the 70s, suddenly there's more twenty-something year-old balladeers than you can shake a stick at. Chris Lee is one of the more recent welcome additions, coming from a background of jazzy improv ensembles. When he moved from North Carolina to Brooklyn, he formed a new trio and recorded a debut album in 1999 with Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley as the unlikely producer, given the rather plaintive pop ballads he specializes in. Shelley also co-produced the follow-up, which has an even lighter touch than it s predecessor. His mercury-smooth tenor threatens to dissolve into gauzy mist on some of the slighter songs. But on stand-outs like "Lonesome Eyes," "Slow As The Sun" and the stellar cover of Neil Young's "On The Beach," Lee's immense talent is obvious. "Mount Venus" demonstrates his vocal abilities, stretching and crooning without getting showy like Jeff Buckley used to with his Robert Plant shrieks. The seventies soul production suits him well, especially in "On The Beach," where I swear to god he sounds like Sam Cooke when he reaches a falsetto in three refrains ("All my problems are meaningless/That don't make them go away…And I'm sitting here on the beach"). Wow. The album is worth the price for those fifteen seconds alone. The lovely album ends at only eight songs and 38 minutes, leaving one wanting more -- more songs, and variety that the long title suggests but doesn't deliver. But it's certainly a good omen for future greatness.
