Susan Werner - I Can't Be New
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Free Music Notes for I Can't Be New
Free Music Review: Art For Life's Sake
Hit: 5 Stars
Let's say this: Susan Werner is the most literate, intelligent songwriter and lyricist to come along in quite some time. She's on a par with the young Lyle Lovett, without the deliberate "If I Had a Boat" quirkiness and without the "L.A. County" testosterone. Her observations are keen, taking the measure of all within her purview -- but soothed, as we are, by her humble reverence for her ability to see. Her insight is acute, cutting to the pain of failed relationships and temporality acknowledged -- but salved, as we are, by the grateful acceptance of her ability to feel. Her joy is seemingly boundless, celebrating the rarity of the blissful and the beautiful -- but bridled, as we are, by the muted maturity of balance lived. Judging from Susan Werner's evident determination to trace the truth in every moment, she can't be new. Judging from the accessible sophistication of her musical and linguistic expression, she is singularly wise.Free Music Review: Fans of Diana Krall: Someone new for you
Hit: 4 Stars
This is not Werner's first CD I understand, but it served as my introduction to her as her name is not well-known. I'm assuming that will be the case for many reading this review. If you want a comparison point, imagine Carly Simon fronting a Diana Krall-ish jazz combo.
Werner's voice is pretty and expressive and the musical arrangements, with a few exceptions, uncomplicated and elegant, aiming the focus squarely at Werner.
Standouts are "I Can't Be New" which toys with lyrical cheesiness ("Coffee,ham and eggs, I can be your diner") but in the same way of Motown great "The Way You Do the Things You Do" teeters on the precipice but never falls off the cliff. "Stay on Your Side of Town" makes its demand of an ex-lover, standing the lyrical conceit of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" on its head.
"Much at All" recites a litany of complaints about a former flame, hoping to convince herself she's better off without him. "No One Needs to Know" throws the listener a curve with "No one needs to know how fast, how very hard I fell,And if you're still in love with someone that you loved years ago, well, no one needs to know" which makes the listener wonder whether the love object is still Werner..or an old flame. Whether you view it as a lover's plea for public dignity or her sad admission that her partner has "settled", either way it's a powerful lyric.
Less welcome are "Philanthropy" which takes a chancy premise (that true love has caused Werner to abandon selfish ways) and pushes it over into banality with "lee-da-da" and scattish backing vocals. Those pushed the song into yuckville for me, though I'm sure Manhattan Transfer fans will find it engaging. "I'm not Sure" is a pleasant bossa nova, but it doesn't reach the standard set by some of the others.
This CD should be a welcome addition to your library and, like me, will inspire a search for her others.
Free Music Review: GrownUpMusic.com Recommended!
Hit: 5 Stars
"Coffee, ham and eggs. I can be your diner. Tired, aching legs? I'll be your recliner." The American songbook gets a new chapter, as singer/songwriter Susan Werner unpacks her adjectives and irony, giving George Gershwin and Cole Porter a run for their money in lyrical wit and jazz/pop melody-making. Werner is a fence-sitter of the highest degree. Give her a guitar, and she out-belts and out-plays both Indigo Girls at once. Park her at the piano, and she cozies up to the microphone with the flair of Diana Krall. Her previous releases have been upbeat, guitar-driven, folky discs with just a tease of her piano-flavored retrospection. But with "I Can't Be New," Werner hops off the fence and plants herself firmly at the keyboard, churning out a song cycle of new millenium standards about love, serving up humor and heartbreak with a gentle piano flourish. On the title song, Warner waxes Porter-esquely. "And when they're buying you steak, I can be the gravy. When they throw you in the lake, I can be the navy." But in all her lyrical silliness, there's a sobering message that rings true to anyone who's ever been in love. "I can be the sky, the very wild blue yonder. Still I can't catch your eye, when it starts to wander. As I've seen it do. At least a time or two. I'll be anything to you, but I can't be new." Bet you didn't see that coming. Werner's classically trained voice can fill a room with ease. For fans of female cabaret and jazz, "I Can't Be New" may be a tribute to the legendary songwriting of the past, but Werner definitely has something to say that isn't same-old/same-old.Free Music Review: Cabaret for the 21st century
Hit: 5 Stars
No, the lady can't be new. Maybe when you listen to "I Can't Be New" for the first time, you'll think that Ms. Werner has decided to record some unpublished or obscure songs by Cole Porter or Rodgers and Hart. And why wouldn't you? The sound is caberet; the lyrics bittersweet.
But then you look at the lyric sheet and you realize that she wrote all the songs on the CD herself, and so what at first seems like interpretive singing is actually a brilliant re-creation of the style and conventions of the Tin Pan Alley of a half century ago. Like her contemporaries Nellie McKay and Erin McKeown, Ms. Warner won't throw the past away. Unlike them, however, she apparently has no interest in blending the present with the past. There are no samples here, no rap, no contemporary references.
All the tunes are good, but my personal favorites are the title cut, "Late for the Dance," "Let's Regret This in Advance," and especially "Stay on Your Side of Town." She finishes with a "coda" called "Maybe If I Sang Cole Porter." Maybe she should.
Ms. Werner sings the tunes in a voice like stainless steel.
Splendid all around.
Free Music Review: There's Something About Susan Werner and this Album
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't think of a way to describe how good this album is with a one-liner, all I know is, the night when I poped it into my CD player for the first time, I listend to it again for two more times after that. The next night, the same thing. Werner has a way of writing and singing her songs in this album that makes it seemed like they are songs that had been written ages ago, sung a thousand times but have been given new energy by a vibrant artist. That said, of course we know these are brand new songs that she had just composed for this album. I'm not familiar with her older, more folksy stuff, but the heart-felt and clever lyrics, woven into the jazzy composition with nice piano chops, is soothing and refreshing at the same time. My favorites on this album are "I can't be new" and "Stay on your side of town", both find creative ways to talk about relationship problems with some very classic-sounding jazz music composition. Just listen, and you'll agree too that this is an album that you'll want to listen to over and over again.