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Kind of like a Rilo Kiley album (of which she is a group member).When it was originally released in 2008, I sampled it on iTunes and didn't think enough of the 30 second clips to purchase it. Let's start with "Bad Man's World". I find it hard to discern one song from the next on many of the tracks. This is tired and just banal. I wish I could say I enjoyed 'Acid Tongue' as much as I liked her debut, but I don't. Maybe three disks (2 hers, 1 Rilo Kiley) in three years was asking too much and she was stretched too thin.Totally not worth a purchase price. Maybe lazy. Silly silly me.What do I mean by tired.
The same two chords are found in the opener, "Black Sand". It was one of the few times my instinct kicked in when it comes to music. Not by a long-shot.Her debut, 'Rabbit Fur Coat' was original and fresh. I'm not sure you can use two chords and five words repeatedly and call it a song. I finally just ripped a copy when I checked it out of the library. More often than not, I buy based on past performances. It sounded kind of cool for starters, until you realize this all you're going to hear for the next 47 minutes.I could go on song by song, but really - why bother.There is no focus, no cohesion to this disk. Probably not even worth the cost of gas it took me to get to the library and back.
As many others that have reviewed this album, first a fan of Rilo Kiley. Couldn't get into this album, songs too slow for my liking. Lacking hooks.May require a couple of listens to get into, but with so much out there I couldn't even bother. Added to my MP3 player, listened once, deleted.
There's a power, an interesting hook, something to remember. "Black Sand", while pretty, is subdued for a first track (especially considering that she opens her live shows with See Fernando), and "Pretty Bird" is much more of a complement for it in style, and possibly slower in pacing to boot. Once someone pops in Acid Tongue for the first time, especially if they're familiar with Rabbit Fur Coat, it is somewhat surprising. However, as you listen again, with the full context of the album, the earlier tracks become stronger.
On Acid Tongue, two consecutive slow tracks begin the album. After the first, and even second listen, I was firmly in the 3.5 star camp. Then the album takes a spike in tempo, as the rip-roaring and very fast "See Fernando" begins to shape the image of the album. A month ago, I would have rated it 4/5. "The Last Messiah" follows, which is nearly nine minutes, and the first time you hear it, you definitely notice it's nine minutes, as you're dying for something new.
For the remainder of the album, Lewis has several great efforts, with Godspeed being the only possible "miss" on the final half of the album.To this point, it sounds like a 3-4 star review. However, the album is just getting played more and more recently, and it is becoming better as time goes by. On RFC, after a small minute track to warm up, three of the next four songs were very upbeat or powerful songs (The Charging Sky, The Big Guns, and Rise Up With Fists., only with Happy intervening). Suddenly, "The Last Messiah" lasting nine minutes is a little more acceptable when you see the huge role of the supporting cast on the remainder of the album, and the impact of them as such. "Bad Man's World" goes back to a slower pace, which I know threw me off of my expectations for Acid Tongue on the first lesson.Luckily, the album does pick up after that.
The title track is still slow, but there's a spark behind it that I feel Pretty Bird and Black Sand are missing. Songs like "Black Sand" or "Bad Man's World" become significantly more listenable because you know that it will pick up later, and that this is the balance. It's not perfect, it needed to be in a different order and I felt like a few tracks could have been omitted if she wanted to, but I think it's just on the cusp of 5 stars, barely.
Are we sure Blake wasn't writing some of those old lyrics.But seriously, this is a put-on, right. Too many songs here feel like transcripts of AA meetings.
And not the good, "Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac" kind of El Lay that we got on the last RK album. More "Eagles/Sheryl Crow survivor-rock, confessional singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan Saved" kind of El Lay.
El Lay. Or maybe the problem is rehab.
What could it mean that her solo work---where she's presumably free to follow her every whim---comes across as the work of a completely artificial, shallow and calculated personality. Is this really her attempt to get back to her acting career.
Or is this really who she is. Right.
As is all her stuff. I'm not exactly sure what some of the other reviewers don't like about this CD. Never mind them, get this and enjoy.
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