Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - The Lion The Beast The Beat - Printable Version +- Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com) +-- Forum: Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Alternative (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=11) +--- Thread: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - The Lion The Beast The Beat (/showthread.php?tid=7138)

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - The Lion The Beast The Beat - Music Head - 13-06-2012 online listen just misses the list started out good, but got repetitious to a fault love her voice I say ooh la la 1.6 from me and a converted 2.2 from the pros at allmusic from the album - Never Go Back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA_ode55DFA released June 12th, 2012 Bio - from allmusic Singer, songwriter, and Hammond B-3 player Grace Potter grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont, where she began playing piano at the age of seven; informed by her parents' extensive collection of some 4,000 LPs, she was gigging out locally by her late teens. She met drummer Matt Burr at an open-mike session while both were attending St. Lawrence University in upstate New York in 2002, and the two formed Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. The band, by then a trio with the addition of Scott Tournet on guitar, recorded its homemade debut album, Original Soul, in 2004 on its own newly created Ragged Company record label. Bassist Bryan Dondero joined just as the group began tracking a second homemade effort, Nothing But the Water, which was released in 2005. The album garnered a good deal of critical acclaim, thanks to its sturdy, throwback, rootsy sound and Potter's impressive vocal work, which drew comparisons to everyone from Janis Joplin to Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, and Bonnie Raitt. Fiercely independent and in control of their own career, Potter and the band turned down several major-label offers before signing with Hollywood Records later in 2005. Hollywood reissued Nothing But the Water for wider distribution in 2006, and in 2007, in conjunction with Ragged Company, issued This Is Somewhere, which further refined the band's classic organic sound. In 2010, after a shelved Potter solo project produced by T-Bone Burnett, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals was released. Produced by Mark Batson (Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Beyonce, and Alicia Keys), the album's more polished, sound and tighter songwriting were part of an effort by both label and group to pull out all the stops in breaking them as a charting act. The band toured incessantly, and released an iTunes session, a live album in the U.K., a download-only live-at -the-Fillmore date, and even a Christmas EP. In the summer of 2012, they emerged with a new studio offering, The Lion the Beast the Beat. Album Review - from allmusic Grace Potter & the Nocturnals' self-titled 2010 album raised the band's profile. It traded heavily on their concert strengths, and while not perfect, it more or less shored up their reputation with fans and spread their rep globally. The Lion the Beast the Beat is a creative leap. With the band having enlisted producer Jim Scott, most tracks were cut live from the floor of his studio with strings, effects, and backing vocals added later. The sound here is big, sometimes bombastic, but never slick; it's wildly varied, too. Collectively, the songs have a very loose thematic link about the gray areas between perception and reality, looking at everything from relationships to time's passage. The title track contains the band's signature big guitars and drums roaring above an organ and strings. It nods -- without winking -- at the Go-Go's' "We Got the Beat." Dan Auerbach co-wrote and co-produced "Never Go Back," the album's first single. It's a tricky, quirky number with an off-kilter funk riff à la mid-period Talking Heads. Its chorus is infectious and Potter's singing, alternately seductive and authoritative, grabs the listener by the throat. The ballad "Stars" looks directly toward country radio with its pedal steel and lilting hook. That said, it's warmer and more natural-sounding. Auerbach and Potter also co-wrote the Doors-influenced "Loneliest Soul," an uptempo groover with pulsing organ, slinky Rhodes, and a popping bassline that pushes it above imitation. The psych-tinged "Timekeeper" is an unlikely pop song, but its distinctly retro feel and Potter's exquisite vocal -- which is far more disciplined than on any previous recording -- are irresistible. "Runaway" is punchy, nasty, funky rock & roll -- one keeps expecting horns, but they never appear. Co-produced by Auerbach and Scott, it contains the former's feel for live distortion and the latter's layered ambience and dynamics, and combines them to great effect. The guitar break is smoking; it pushes Potter to her limit in response. The closer, "The Divide," is the set's best track. It's a slow-building, apocalyptic rocker, whose three guitars create menace and drama. They are balanced by a careening organ and a large string section, arranged to carry the proceedings from the abyss to transcendence. While Potter's melodies and hooks are solid on The Lion the Beast the Beat, some of her lyric choices are still a bit clunky. However, she and the Nocturnals compensate with passion, execution, and smart production choices and arrangements. With its exponential musical growth, this might indeed be the record that moves the band from the merely recognizable into the pop mainstream. Track Listing 1. The Lion the Beast the Beat 2. Never Go Back 3. Parachute Heart 4. Stars 5. Timekeeper 6. Loneliest Soul 7. Turntable 8. Keepsake 9. Runaway 10. One Heart Missing 11. The Divide Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - The Lion The Beast The Beat - CRAZY-HORSE - 14-06-2012 nice track MH