The Roches - Keep on Doing
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Free Music Notes for Keep on Doing
Free Music Review: Another great one
Hit: 5 Stars
All The Roches music is equally great: their lyrics touch on pieces of life that no one usually sings about--working in a restaurant, baby for the "unwed" mother, a big guy taking up a two-person seat--the music is captivating, and the harmonies perfectly intricate. Try singing a line yourself and you realize how they pick up each others voices and go running off to unreachable highs and lows. They even make me laugh. If you're scrounging around to find pride in this country like some of us, The Roches do us proud.Free Music Review: Childlike, quirky folk never bettered by its makers
Hit: 5 Stars
"Keep On Doing", a reunion with Robert Fripp, showed the Roches perfecting - to a degree they would never do later - the approach of their first two albums.
Whilst all the childlike naivette and understated simplicity of such highlights as "The Death Of Suzzy Roche" from those two albums remains, on "Keep On Doing" the sisters combine it with a degree of infectious energy they would never again equal.
The beautiful harmonies of the opener "The Hallelujah Chorus" are instantly memorable and remind one of a more fiery, stripped-down version of Steeleye Span's "Gaudete", whilst the beautiful "Losing True" and "The Scorpion Lament" wreak with tenderness and feeling, as does the funny yet serious "The Largest Elizabeth In The World", which seems to be a warning against trying to take power for oneself. "Sex Is For Children" was almost funky in its use of electronics, but the way in which the Roches make every note memorable is indeed surprising.
The accessible, hooky "I Fell In Love" showed the band developing its quirky harmonies onto deeply romantic themes, but the intense "Want Not Want Not" with its naive yet remarkably intense, moody, even ecstatic power, is the real stunner here. A motto of indifference, yes, but "Want Not Want Not" seemingly existed in its own time amidst the sisters' remarkably resonant shrieks against the consumerist manifesto of the modern age. The ringing piano adds more than a contrast of tone to the sisters' guitars, as does the impassioned plea "I wish there was a true love" in the middle of the song.
The last album the Roches would record for Warners, its commercial failure (reaching only #183 on Billboard) was hardly surprising, but never would the Roches capture the same degree of power, wisdom and beauty that "Keep On Doing" possessed.
Free Music Review: Fairfax County will break your heart
Hit: 5 Stars
On its own, The Road to Fairfax County is worth the price of admission. And the vocals and lyrics elsewhere on the album sparkle and shimmer. On my list of Roches CD's, Keep on Doing is first equal along with We Three Kings (which also rates as my favourite Christmas CD, from any artist).Free Music Review: Oh my goodness... I'm at a loss of (nice) things to say
Hit: 2 Stars
I heard their Hallelujah Chorus track on a compilation album, and was immediately, ahem, displeased. Shrill voices, mangled phrasing, unoriginal voicings... oh my, poor Handel!Attempting to give this group the benefit of the doubt, I listened to several other tracks of their Keep on Doing album, and alas, felt just as uncomfortable with their singing as when I began.
I know I'm likely to get slammed here, and this is actually one of the very few negative reviews I've written on Amazon.com, but wow, I fail to see any appeal in this group.
Okay, so this review is weak on specifics? Let me offer some more focused criticisms of their opening track:
1) When they hit a unison note, they fail to adjust their individual volumes.
2) They seem like they're singing, nay, shrieking through their throats and noses rather than supporting their voices from their gut.
3) They seem incapable of appropriately carrying over phrases, instead breathing just any ol' random place.
4) Their pitch 'accuracy' is questionable, to put it kindly.
Ack!
Free Music Review: Keep on Doing by the Roches
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a great album. If the only Roches album you know is the first one (the Roches), you might be initially disappointed with this one, since the "the Roches" is such an incredible album. But when you start listening to this, you realize bit by bit that the songwriting is still great here. The harmonies and the arrangements are wonderful. I think my favorite tune is actually not written by them, " On the Road to Fairfax County". But they do an amazing job with the arrangement and the performance. If you don't fall in love with Maggie Roche, you may not be listening hard enough.
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