 | | Reviews | | |  PAUL BRADY
Say What You Feel
Compass Records
Seems to me there used to be a certain kind of artist whose calling card was the inclination to give more than the job demanded: to provide an especially dense, layered experience for the audience, full of passion, surprise, detail and nuance which compelled us to go back again and again to the work. Examples might include Lowell George's best work with Little Feat (ref. 'Rock'n'Roll Doctor'), the prose poetry of E. Annie Proulx, and the intense, fiery playing and muscular lyrics on Paul Brady's first move from the traditional repertoire into the world of contemporary song, Hard Station. Now, a dozen or so albums on, via the sanctioning of his work by no less than Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and other such, we have Paul's new CD, Say What You Feel. It's recorded almost live in a Nashville studio with a spare, acoustic sound and a relaxed, intimate feel.
Brady's songwriting has evolved a sometimes deceptively soft focus, affairs of the heart and bistro romances cropping up constantly ("we ordered pizza, and the waiter was gay", recalling Joni Mitchell at her most anecdotal). Paul's singing here seems to have dropped a musical interval or two, sacrificing that old keening edge in favour of the warm, toasty sound of a man seemingly at ease with his world and certainly comfortably within his considerable musical range. The musical texture, all strummed acoustic guitar, plummy double bass lines and lightly brushed percussion, further suggest to this listener the soundtrack of the next Richard Curtis Britcom movie, woven seamlessly into the clink and chatter of life among the liberal, educated young-ish professionals of North London. And maybe that's the idea.
Say What You Feel is, of course, shot through with class: it's impeccably recorded, sporting the occasional arresting phrase (both verbal and musical), and it's tuneful and warming to the ear. Exactly what the job requires, I suppose: no more, and no less.
Jed Grimes - February 2005
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Folk & Acoustic
