|
Jan
2003 | Hartford Courant
Critic's
Picks For Year's Best Albums
Albums from Eminem and Bruce Springsteen were the big stories last year,
and both are fine recordings. But they faced tough competition from newcomers,
relative unknowns and resurgent artists whose albums contained the most
vital music of 2002. Here, in alphabetical order, are my picks for the
best of 2002:
1. Elvis Costello, "When I Was Cruel" (Island/Def Jam)
2. Doves, "The Last Broadcast" (Capitol) / Coldplay, "A
Rush of Blood to the Head" (Capitol)
3. Mark Erelli, "The Memorial Hall Recordings" (Signature Sounds)
4. The Flaming Lips, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" (Warner
Bros.)
5. Foo Fighters, "One by One" (RCA)
6. Mike Ireland & Holler, "Try Again"
(Ashmont) - An elegant, often aching paean to letting go of past heartache
and starting over, Ireland's second album defines good taste: It's literate,
moving and quietly wise. Recorded in Hartford, "Try Again" combines
Ireland's remarkable songwriting chops with Michael Deming's stellar production
on what is certainly the best country album of 2002 and arguably the past
several years.
7. Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me" (Blue Note)
8. The Roots, "Phrenology" (MCA)
9.
Sleater-Kinney, "One Beat" (Kill Rock Stars)
10. Linda Thompson, "Fashionably Late" (Rounder) - Thompson's
first album in 17 years is a timeless gem with an emphasis on well-crafted
songs and beautiful Brit-folk arrangements. "Fashionably Late"
indeed.
By
ERIC R. DANTON, Courant Rock Critic
May
2002 | Amazon.com
Amazon.com-Reviews:
Try Again
Mike Ireland's 1998 debut album, Learning How to Live, was an out-of-nowhere
stunner, a gut-churning emotional blowout crafted in the aftermath of
epic personal turmoil. Like that disc, its follow-up is classic country,
the kind that echoed from AM radio 30 years ago. And it's no mere revival
act: from the lush, wistful opener "Welcome Back" through the
swinging "Sweet Sweetheart," the pensive piano ballad "I'd
Like To," and the doomed-love ode "Close Enough to Break Each
Other's Hearts," all the way down to the last dying notes of the
plaintive closer "Let Me Hold You," not one second sounds forced.
Ireland's tenor is versatile and sweetened with a twist of Ozark twang;
his lyrics are less crushing than inspiring this time, but just as unflinching
and true. And his band Holler handles weepers and rockers with equal aplomb,
always seeming to know whether to lay back or leap forward and never failing
to color with just the right lick, fill, or string section swoon. Though
it took Ireland four years to muster the players, songs, money, and courage
to make his second disc, Try Again is a wire-to-wire winner and well worth
the wait.
by Anders
Smith Lindall
June
15, 2002 | Billboard Magazine Review
Try Again
Mike Ireland opts to Try Again on his first country album since his great
1998 effort, and the results are similarly top-notch. Ireland, who wrote
all 12 cuts, has a '70s-hued country thing going on here. His earnest,
often heartwrenching tenor perfectly captures the can't-go-home-again
irony of "Welcome Back" and the self-pity of "Right Back
Where I Started." Strings, classic background vocals, and sterling
musicianship accentuate the sarcasm of "Mr. Rain" and blue mood
of "Tonight," while "Sweet Sweetheart" is a steel-laden
shuffle with a rare upbeat tone. Subtle ballads like "I'd Like To"
and "Love's the Hardest Thing to Do" effectively showcase Ireland's
emotive vocal. "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" is a sly,
syncopated treasure, and the set's closer, "Let Me Hold You,"
is pure and simple. Produced to perfection and performed with a true love
for the genre, Ireland has concocted a classic. Racked by Redeye.
—RW
Aug/Sept
2002 | Country Music Magazine
Try Again
****
Mike Ireland's 1998 album, Learning How To Live -- which chronicles how
he lost his wife and a bandmate to romantic betrayal -- ranks among the
great breakup albums of its time. Four years later, Ireland picks up the
pieces and once again crafts country music of sometimes lavish, sometimes
austere beauty.
Now with even greater aplomb, Ireland echoes the lush, soul-shaded country-pop
pioneered by producer Billy Sherrill in the '60s and '70s on the records
of Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Charlie Rich and others. Strings billow
and swirl around melodies, expanding a wistful melancholy or girding a
Jordanaires- style choral harmony. Working with producer Michael Deming
and string arranger Jerry Yester, Ireland builds artful, intuitively emotional
textures that are unlike anything else on the contemporary scene.
"Tragedy plus time" is how moviemaker Woody Allen defines comedy
in his movie Crimes And Misdemeanors. Ireland's Try Again isn't an especially
happy or humorous album; but it, too, has a comedic element. It recognizes
that while love may be a fool's errand, it also is both the hardest thing
we'll ever do and the one thing we must do.
This time around, Ireland finds it better to smile at romantic folly,
as he does on the majestic ballad "I'd Like To." Whether it's
the exile in "Welcome Back" who finds himself finally free from
doubt and returns to the only home he'll ever know, or the couple in "Close
Enough To Break Each Other's Hearts" who sense the danger waiting
for us, if we let this fire start, the bruised believers at the center
of these songs realize that their hearts will endure, even flourish, with
time.
So too will music this genuine, consoling and gorgeous.
- Roy Kasten
|
