The Kennedys - Better Dreams
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The KennedysEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-01-22
Music Label: Appleseed Records
Soundtracks:
- Breathe
- Speed of Soul
- I Found a Road
- No Mornings
- Better Dreams
- Give Me Back My Country
- American Wish
- Sago Mine
- Light My Way
- In My Dreams
- Kindred Spirits
- Pac?
Free Music Notes for Better Dreams
Free Music Review: The best Kennedys CD yet
Hit: 5 Stars
Let me say, right off, that it's by far their best album.
I was a bit disappointed with Songs of the Open Road, not for the performances (I love, love, love "This Moment!") but for the fact that there were no original songs. I thought the songwriting on Half a Million Miles was just superb and was hoping to hear more new ones.
This cd continues where Half a Million Miles left off. The Kennedys have (ahem) evolved into songwriters who have captured the mystical in their music. Between the jangling guitar chords, and the spiritual lyrics, the songs synthesize the yin and yang of music and words into a glorious evocation of our inner lives. I honestly believe that they've taken us down the path that George Harrison began to blaze all those many years ago.
Take "Breathe" for instance. It's supposedly about dreams, but to me it's a guide for living. There's so much wisdom we can draw from dreams, as Maura asks us to challenge our perceptions. I can't wait to hear this from the Falcon Ridge stage on Sunday morning.
"The Speed of Soul" just rolls along. I like hearing Pete's voice on the harmonies. That Rachael Davis giggle at the end reminds me of the various sound effects on the Beatle's White Album.
There are two love songs that make me wonder. Both are beautiful. "I Found a Road" and "Light My Way" could be dedicated to a lover, but also to some version of God. It doesn't matter which. After all, the best love songs capture the eternal essence of that emotion, which should transcend mortal souls. The sitar work creates the perfect ambience.
"No Mornings' is the masterpiece of the cd. First, there's the AMAZING vocal, maybe Maura's best ever. Then, there's the gorgeous melody. The guitar and violin work is just so sensitive and soothing. But what makes the song so special is the lyrics that require one to ponder. What does it all mean? As in a dream, one can never be sure. In the case of this song, we can keep coming back to listen.
The title song, "Better Dreams" is a treat because of the presence of the Strangelings. There's no band around that sounds quite like them, and it's a joy to hear them play something beside covers. (I imagine that, these days, Pete and Maura have to make a decision with each song, whether to make it a Strangelings, Kennedys or Stringbuster song. I suppose Neil Young used to do the same thing.) As for the song, I love the rhymes, and, of course, the message - "Put your faith in better dreams." Good advice, on many levels.
Then we get to the political songs. They change the mood, especially Sago Mine (which possible should have been saved for another disk.) As countless songwriters have learned, topical songs can get old in a hurry. But yes, do give me back my country. I want to give voice to the American Wish. I am very hopeful these days. You can say that I'm having better dreams.
The guitars on all three songs are great, especially the U2-like jam at the end of American Wish. Those extended jams are what first drew me to the Kennedys. I'm hoping to hear more of them in concert.
The cd winds down beautifully, with lilting, uplifting melodies and lyrics, gradually changing into ethereal sounds that are perfect for, what else, falling asleep. Or, in my case, I hit "play" again.
Better Dreams Poster
Inspiration is where you find it - or it finds you. Open to every moment, the much-traveled married duo of Pete and Maura Kennedy have spun their personal experiences, musical influences and philosophical beliefs into nine previous albums of winsome original songs, frequently seasoned with exquisitely-performed cover tunes, that blend acoustic-based folk, rock, country, pop and secular gospel into an inclusively delightful sound that's all their own.
After celebrating some of their favorite "road music" by other songwriters on their previous CD, Songs of the Open Road , The Kennedys recorded Better Dreams, their first CD of all-original material in seven years, inspired by a pair of seminars they conducted on "using dreams to unlock your creativity." "All of these songs have something to do with the dreamtime," where "we have a different kind of freedom there," they explain.
Time and space become fluid in the dreams The Kennedys have translated into these songs. The cleansing "eternal now" flows through the CD-opening "Breathe," which counsels, "Breathe into a new life, breathe out all the old times." The tricky path to love is illuminated on "I Found a Road" and "Light My Way." Real life nightmares rush into folk history ("Sago Mine," about the January 2006 mining disaster in West Virginia) or flood the modern day (both "Give Me Back My Country" and "American Wish" lament the draining of civil liberties in post-9/11 America). The dream state itself can be a lifeboat (as on the Eastern-tinged title song and "In My Dreams"), an exhausting anchor ("No Mornings"), or, to mix metaphors, an exhilarating rocket ride to a metaphysical sock-hop ("Speed of Soul"). Appropriately, the CD concludes with an ethereal, near wordless hymn to the ultimate dream - peace ("Pac?")
Whatever the scenario, The Kennedys use their full palette of vocal and instrumental colors to bring their songs to glowing life. Maura's lead vocals range from comforting to yearning, from girlish to womanly, from exuberant to delicate, sometimes bolstered by her own sweet harmonies and those of Pete and several guests. As usual, multi-instrumentalist Pete provides a vibrant tapestry of chiming, jangling and twanging guitars, as well as mandolin, keyboards, bass and drums, interwoven with Maura's sturdy acoustic rhythm guitar, harmonica and glockenspiel.
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