Lyle Lovett - It's Not Big It's Large
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Free Music Notes for It's Not Big It's Large
Free Music Review: More good stuff from Lyle!
Hit: 4 Stars
Great CD, enjoyed the Big Band cut and all the tunes from Lyle. One of my favorites.Free Music Review: Love-it
Hit: 4 Stars
Love the sound & the texture of this album. Nice to see Lyle stretch his wingsFree Music Review: It's not large, it's average
Hit: 3 Stars
Lyle's last album (of his own songs) was so similar to the previous one I could barely tell them apart so I only listened to it a couple of times. Seemed a bit of a waste of money. Then Lyle cancelled his UK tour and I wasted more money on the hotel I'd booked... The reason cited for the cancellation was that it clashed with his recording schedule. If that's true then presumably this is what he was recording when he should've been entertaining me in person. So it had better be good!
It starts well enough with the big band sound of Tickle Toe. Takes you back to the other Large Band album. But it's weird: you never hear that sound again, so why on earth is it there? It doesn't fit.
The rest of the album is standard Lovett, with bits from several albums of the past decade or so. It's almost like a bunch of songs that never made it onto those other albums because they weren't quite good enough.
Not that (in isolation) this is a bad collection of songs. It isn't. He does a decent job of the somewhat repetitive part-traditional 'I Will Rise Up/Ain't No More Cane', helped by his usual rather good backing singers. Unfortunately we get this song again later on.
There are a bunch of croaked quiet songs like `Don't Cry a Tear' that sound awfully similar to many other LL songs but not as good. There's a weird song about slapping babies that surely belongs on the I Love Everybody album. Brazos abound as usual (what on earth are they?), there's the usual track that begins with something about it being Saturday and coffee being on (not again!) and they're all nicely done and well, pretty much as you'd expect.
The trouble is that nothing stands out except the baby-slapping song. There's no 'If I Had a Boat', no 'Pontiac', no 'M-O-N-E-Y'. Has Lyle run out of tunes? I think he has.
Free Music Review: Too Little "Large Band"
Hit: 3 Stars
Looks like those of us who bought this instead of the cheaper "special edition" took it in the shorts. Not that there are any songs on that that aren't here, there aren't. But there is an extra disc featuring some alternate takes.
Anyway, I have been a Lyle Lovett fan seemingly forever and enjoy most of what he does. But I enjoy his work with an earlier incarnation of his "large band" most of all and am disappointed to discover that there is very little of that style here. Oh, It's Not Big It's Large is very good but it mostly features down-tempo songs and a lot of introspection.
My favorites are the jazzy Tickle Toe, the forceful medley I Will Rise Up/Ain't No More Cane, the rollicking All Down Hill, and the jumping Up In Indiana. The rest are mostly acoustic and they are just fine, but not when you are expecting the second coming of the Lovett's "large band" era.
Despite the bait-and-switch, which is my reason for tagging this with just three stars, most Lyle Lovett fans are going to like this anyway. If you do decide to buy It's Not Big It's Large, my advice is to go for the currently cheaper special edition. Had I bought mine on amazon, I would have been aware of its existence and bought that edition myself instead of this one. At least this "chump's edition" comes with a handsome booklet containing pictures, lyrics, and the usual information.
Free Music Review: indecision
Hit: 3 Stars
this is what i feel about this one, a little bit of indecision. The 3 stars rating is maybe too low, but closer to the truth than the 4 stars rating. I have to say mr. Lovett told us a little lie this time, as you can hear the large band isn't so large, except for the first two tracks, so if you remember the large band album in 1989 or "live in texas" there isn't much of it in here. Anyway, you can find the usual warm, confidential, really great use of voice by Lyle and the usual wonderful team of musicians, nothing to say! About the songs: there is a little lie here too. Two of them are repeated twice, in obvious different form, and a couple seem to come from the same idea, so the track list may seem shorter than written on the cd. But i must say the are enough great songs to justify your time and money, with a special mention to "south texas girl" with Guy Clark, "ain't no more cane" and "the alley song" though, like Van Morrison, Lyle tends to rewrite always the same song, but i love both of them! So, this one is not the cd you can't do without, but especially if you don't know Lyle Lovett you can start here then go back to "the road to ensenada", "joshua judges ruth", "and his large band", "pontiac" and the live album. So if you can't have it don't lose your sleep, but if you buy it enjoy it my friend!