Album Profiles

[Kirobaito]

I'm bored. Pick any album and write a profile/review/whatever for it. You don't have to be as detailed as I'm going to be, of course. This thread is essentially for people to learn about the best albums, or even the worst albums, from whatever artist in whatever genre, to educate. Now, mine, which took way too long to do.

<img src="http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/420/425681.jpg">

James Taylor - Hourglass

Released: 1997, Columbia Records
Chart Peak: #9 on the <i>Billboard 200</i>

Background:
Having been six years since Taylor's last album, 1991's <i>New Moon Shine</i>, <i>Hourglass</i> marked a long wait for fans of the legendary singer-songwriter. Though the album fails to break any new ground (the overall style and texture is very similar to <i>New Moon Shine</i>), <i>Hourglass</i> was a resounding success, winning the 1998 Grammy Award for "Pop Album of the Year". The style is that of typical post-1980 Taylor soft-rock, with light acoustic-guitar fingerpicking providing the background for Bob Mann's electric-guitar playing and Clifford Carter on keyboards. The album remains cohesive with the title "Hourglass" to represent a self-reflective look at Taylor's life and loves.

As usual, the background vocals are flawless from the foursome of Arnold McCuller, David Lasley, Kate Markowitz, and Valerie Carter, all of who have released their own albums. <i>Hourglass</i> features several guest musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Stevie Wonder on harmonica, and Sting on vocals.

In short, I've always been a James Taylor fan, but purchasing this album completely changed my outlook on his life and work. I'm now obsessed with him, because he's able to take an album that on the surface has nothing new to offer and make it something phenomenal to listen to.

Credits:
James Taylor - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Penny Whistle, Harmonica
Arnold McCuller - Backup Vocals
David Lasley - Backup Vocals
Valerie Carter - Backup Vocals
Shawn Colvin - Backup Vocals
Jill Dell'Abate - Backup Vocals
Clifford Carter - Keyboards
Jimmy Johnson - Bass
Bob Mann - Electric Guitar
Dan Dugmore - Pedal Steel Guitar
Carlos Vega - Percussion
Ross Traut - Guitar
Michael Brecker - Sax (Tenor), EWI
Yo-Yo Ma - Cello
Branford Marsalis - Sax (Soprano)
Edgar Meyer - Bass (Acoustic)
Mark O'Connor - Fiddle
Sting - Vocals
Stevie Wonder - Harmonica

Tracks:

<b>1. "Line 'Em Up" (4:44)</b>
The opening track reflects upon Taylor's opening days as a singer-songwriter, featuring references to Richard Nixon's departure from the White House, the landing on the moon in 1969, and Sun Myung Moon's mass weddings. While an enjoyable track to listen to, it is not particularly inspiring other than that it gives a hint at Taylor's feelings at the time.

<i>I remember Richard Nixon back in '74
And the final scene at the White House door
And the staff lined up to say good-bye
Tiny tear in his shifty little eye
He said nobody knows me, nobody understands
These little people were good to me
Oh, I'm gonna shake some hands

CHORUS:
Somebody line 'em up
Line 'em all up
Line 'em up
Line 'em all up
Line 'em up
Line 'em all up
Line 'em up
Line 'em all up

At that time my heart was all broke
I looked like ashes and smelled like smoke
And I turned away from my loving kind
Try to leave my body and live in my mind
But it's much too much emotion
To hold it in your hand
They've got waves out on the ocean
They're gonna wear away the land

CHORUS

Oh I've seen corn in Kansas
And I've seen picket fences
And certain cowboy dances
I've gone lining up for shows
I've been safely placed in rows
Sure I know how it goes

Another day goes by, little time machine
I'm breaking my brain over what it might mean
Just to claim the time, and to turn away
To make today today
Who waits for you, lonely tired old toad?
It's your life laid out before you
Like the broken white line down the center of the doggone road

CHORUS

Yeah, big moon landing
People all standing up
Smiles for the loved ones
They go walking on down the aisles
Each re-engages stepping into the Sun
I watch them turn like pages
One by one by one

CHORUS</i>

<b>2. "Enough to Be on Your Way" (5:29)</b>
From the opening guitar licks unified with Yo-Yo Ma's cello playing, this song possesses gorgeous musical arrangement set to some of Taylor's best lyric-writing. Penned for his late brother Alex, the song is a ballad of a renamed Alice at her funeral, and how her reckless lifestyle ended in her eventual death. Unusual for Taylor is his use of a curse word (lol).

<i>The sun shines on this funeral
The same as on a birth
The way it shines on everything
That happens here on Earth
It rolls across the western sky
And back into the sea
And spends the day's last rays
Upon this smurfed-up family
So long old pal

The last time I saw Alice
She was leaving Santa Fe
With a bunch of round-eyed Buddhists
In a killer Chevrolet
Said they turned her out of Texas
Yeah she burned 'em down back home
Now she's wild with expectation
On the edge of the unknown

CHORUS:
Oh it's enough to be on your way
It's enough just to cover ground
It's enough to be moving on
Home, build it behind your eyes
Carry it in your heart
Safe among your own

They brought her back on a Friday night
Same day I was born
We sent her up the smoke stack
And back into the storm
She blew up over the San Juan mountains
And spent herself at last
The threat of heavy weather
That was what she knew the best

CHORUS

It woke me up on a Sunday
An hour before the sun
It had me watching the headlights
Out on highway 591
'Til I stepped into my trousers
'Til I pulled my big boots on
I walked out on the Mesa
And I stumbled on this song</i>

<b>3. "Little More Time With You" (3:52)</b>
Featuring Stevie Wonder on Harmonica, this song is also reflective of Taylor's life, about his struggles with drug use. One of the bigger hits from <i>Hourglass</i>, "Little More Time With You" features some awesome harmonica playing from Stevie Wonder.

<i>Got a watchdog watching me, doggy
Watching me packing my bags
He knows I'm leaving town,
I can see that it's a drag
Why leave the life I love here in the great state of Maine
Just to ride that shining rail, just to size that ball and chain?

Oh, I gotta spend just a little more time with you, that's why
Gotta spend just a little more time with you, oh oh oh

I passed on the cocaine
Said bye-bye to my methadone.
Put down the bottle for one more day
Backing off of my tobacco jones
Still I'm feeling like a hopeless junkie, like a man who can't say no
I look back and there's that monkey, rascal, won't let go.

Gotta spend just a little more time with you, that's right.
Gotta spend just a little more time with you, oh oh.
Gotta spend just a little more time with you, yes I do, yes I do, now.
Gotta spend just a little more time with you, oh oh oh.

I get high and I can't come down, I get high just hanging around.
I get high, I go lost and found, I get high oh I oh I,

Gotta spend just a little more time with you, I'll be walking in the light.
Gotta spend just a little bit more time with you, oh oh.
Gotta spend just a little more time with you,
Just a little more time, just a little more time.
Gotta spend just a little bit more time with you, oh oh....</i>

4. "Gaia" (5:31)
A basic tree-hugger's anthem, which is a favorite ballad of most singer-songwriters, "Gaia" reflects on the Earth as one organism and one inter-connected being. Excellent saxophone playing, though it tends to get a little long and droning.

<i>The sky was light and the land all dark
The sun rose up over Central Park
I was walking home from work
GAIA

The petal sky and the rosy dawn
The world turning on the burning sun
Sacred wet green one we live on
GAIA

Run run run run said the automobile and we ran
Run for your life take to your heels
Foolish school of fish on wheels
GAIA

Turn away from your animal kind
Try to leave your body just to live in your mind
Leave your cold cruel mother earth behind
GAIA

As if you were your own creation
As if you were the chosen nation
And the world around you just a rude and
Dangerous invasion
GAIA

Someone's got to stop us now
Save us from us Gaia
No one's gonna stop us now

We thought we ought to walk awhile
So we left that town in a single file
Up and up and up mile after mile after mile

We reached the tree line and I dropped my pack
Sat down on my haunches and I looked back down
Over the mountain
Helpless and speechless and breathless
GAIA

Pray for the forest pray to the tree
Pray for the fish in the deep blue sea
Pray for yourself and for God's sake
Say one for me
Poor wretched unbeliever

Someone's got to stop us now
Save us from us Gaia
No one's gonna stop us now</i>

<b>5. "Ananas" (5:44)</b>
JT's attempt at a bilingual song, I personally don't think it went so well. It's one of the few love songs on <i>Hourglass</i>, and one of my least favorite.

<i>Je t'aime encore means I love you still
C'est pour toujours means I always will
Tu me manquais trop means I missed you too much
Je fais ce qu'il faut means I'll do what I must

Me voici à ta fenêtre tous tes gens me voient ici
Here I am at your window darling for all your people to see me

CHORUS:
Ananas laisse moi une fois
Laisse moi te voir
Let me one more time, ananas
Ananas, I'm lopin' along hopin' you're home
Open up and let me on in

Maybe I rise and maybe I fall, maybe you lie underneath it all
I ain't got nothin' but for what you see, even my own heart don't belong to me

Got your river running in my blood
Got your fire burning in my heart
You got me falling like a shooting star
Just like some tragic work of art

REPEAT CHORUS

Here I am at your window baby for all your people to see
Howling like a dog on the moonlight won't you have pity on me

REPEAT CHORUS</i>

<b>6. "Jump Up Behind Me" (3:30)</b>
Probably the best song on <i>Hourglass</i>, "Jump Up Behind Me" chronicles Taylor's journey from a sticky situation in 1969, where he found himself as low as he could go and asked his father for help. He and his father, never possessing a particularly healthy relationship, drove from New York to North Carolina together. Clifford Carter almost steals the show with the playing of some kind of synthesizer instrument operated with the mouth and keyboard.

<i>This land is a lovely green
It reminds me of my own home
Such children I've seldom seen
Even in my own home
The sky is so bright and clean
Just like my home
Kind people as have ever been
Won't you take me back my own home?

CHORUS:
Jump up behind me, my love
Ol' Dan can bear us both, jump up behind me
Follow this road 'til we reach the sea, jump up behind me
Catch the tide, and we'll set Dan free, jump up behind me.

I've been in this world awhile
I've seen a lot of country
Many days and many miles,
All various and sundry.
I've had my way and I've had my fun
I've had my chance to run free
Burnin' hot beneath the sun
Freezin' cold and wintry.

CHORUS

I know now one thing only matters in these days
One thing, true love
Love and love alone

Came out of my dream last night
Thought I was back in my old home
Mom and dad were both still alive,
And the baby's not yet born, no
It felt like a festival
It felt like Christmas Morning
I felt the darkness fall away,
even as the world was turnin'.

Follow the road to the western sea</i>

8. "Another Day" (2:23)
Though it hardly breaks new ground, "Another Day" is an enjoyable track solely through Taylor's delivery of the lyrics.

<i>Wake up Suzy, put your shoes on
Walk with me into this light
Finally this morning, I'm feeling whole again
It was a hell of a night.

Just to be with you by my side
Just to have you near in my sight
Just to walk awhile in this light
Just to know that life goes on

Wake up Suzy, put your shoes on
Walk with me into this light

Another night has gone, life goes on
Another dawn is breaking
Turn and face the sun, one by one
The world outside is waking
The morning light has driven away
All the shadows that hide your way.
And night has given away to the promise of another day.

Another day
Another chance that we may finally find our way
Another day
The sun has begun to melt all our fears away
Another day, another day.

Wake up Suzy, put your shoes on
Walk with me into this light</i>

8. "Up Er Mei" (3:49)
Up Er Mei is a mountain in China. This song chronicles a trip James took to China with his daughter, and their journey on that mountain. It's a good song, I suppose, though not one of the better ones on this album.

<i>We were walking in paradise
Never did notice
Blind in the Buddha Land
Looking for solace
We have been told of a place
Far beyond this vale of tears
We could never have guessed
We were already blessed
There we were, there we are
In the garden

Didn't we climb on Up Er Mei
Temple to temple
Yes, in all and all along the way
The day was simple
Didn't we reach the top
Didn't we gain our goal
Did we finall stop
Surprised by the cold?

We were walking in paradise
Never did tumble
Blind in the Buddha Land
Looking for trouble
We had been of a place
Far beyond this vale of tears
We could never guessed
We were already blessed
There we were, there we are
In the garden.</i>

9. Up From Your Life (5:17)
I really don't like this song all that much. It's too long and slow, and smells too much of 80's soft rock.

So much for your moment of prayer
God's not at home
There is no there there
Lost in the stars
That's what you are
Left here on your own

You can only hope to live on this earth
This here is it, for all it's worth
Nothing else awaits you
No second birth
No starry crown

For an un-believer like you
There's not much they can do
It would turn you away
Though I hate to see you surrender
You need to surrender
We must find you a way to

CHORUS:
Look up from your life
Up from your life
Look on up from your life
Look up from your life

There's a river running under your feet
Under this house
Under this street
Straight from the heart
Ancient and sweet
On its way back home

Even in the middle of your sadness
The everyday madness
The ongoing game
Even when you can't find a reason
Still there is a reason
You don't need to name it
Look on up

Look up from your life

Only for a minute
To find yourself in it
To wait by the stream
To drop out of your dream
Look on up

Look up from your life

10. "Yellow and Rose" (4:55)
This is a song about Australia. Strange in that this song doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the album. It's all right to listen to, though like the previous song, it gets kind of long.

<i>Yellow and Rose
Yellow and Rose
Yellow and Rose

Oh boy, Botany Bay
Watching the water go by
Here's your home so far away
Here is a tear for your eye
Here is a vast and unknown land
Here are the strangers on the sand

CHORUS
Oh, seeds of the universe ever endeavor to grow
Tiny pieces of everything into the water they go
Everything changes for the strangers on the shore
They are blue and green no more
They are yellow and rose

Down under got the south side
This groovy crazy planet
Watching from the outside
It's as smooth as a gravy sandwich
People play music night for day
One caught the sun in a sekere

REPEAT CHORUS

Remember when we thought we were in California
We thought it was the eye of the hurricane
Old gypsy woman she tried to warn you
You'll be back this way again
Hungry for the rain
It's written in your hand, plain

REPEAT CHORUS</i>

11. "Boatman" (3:59)
This song has phenomenal instrumentation to it. It was written by Livingston Taylor, James' brother. I find it to be a metaphor for a spiritual awakening. Great, great song. Doesn't really get much credit, but I adore it.

<i>Hearts were exploding around us
As we drifted south down the bay
The gray up above and the gray down below
Left us with nothing to say
So we drifted along in silence
Til the tickle of life trickled in
And the rhythm began in the hiss of the sand
We were catching fire again

CHORUS:
Oh, Boatman, I am the river
I am the mountain and the sea
Oh, Boatman, taker and giver,
Can't you deliver me?
I would forever run free

So we finally caught up with the legends
We were walking along side by side
We worked out a plan to go out hand in hand
The long trail just wasn't that wide
The water around us was freezing
We just laughed and threw ourselves in
And although we were old the sting of that cold
Pumped up the feeling, here it is again

REPEAT CHORUS

I'm a message in a bottle
Drifting along on a deep blue sea
Waiting for some foreign shore
Ready for something to be

No longer afraid of the falling
We cut the strings to the sky
We found level ground and we put ourselves down
Amazing we all didn't die
We took each moment as given
By second by second they came
The ice and the sun and the thundering guns
Good God, I was finally saved.

REPEAT CHORUS

Holy roller, I am the river
I am the mountain and the sea
Oh, Boatman, taker and giver
Can't you deliver me?
I would forever run free.</i>

12. "Walking My Baby Back Home" (3:12)
Yet another oldies cover by Taylor, who scored hits in the 70's, including a Grammy, with "Handy Man" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You." A good song, but like "Yellow and Rose", not one of the best on the album.

Gee it's great after staying out late
Walking my baby back home
Arm-in-arm, over meadow and farm
Walking my baby back home

We go on harmonizing a song
Or she's reciting a poem
Owls fly by and they give me the eye
Walking my baby back home

We stop for awhile, she gives me a smile
And cuddles her cheek to my chest
We start to pet, and that's when I get
Her powder all over my vest

After I kinda straighten my tie
She has to borrow my comb
One kiss, then, we continue again
Walking my baby back home.

After I kinda straighten my tie
She has to borrow my comb
One kiss, then, we continue again
Walking my baby back home.

13. "Hangnail" (2:23)
A hidden track that plays 45 seconds after "Walking" ends. It's a joke song, with a rawhide feel (whipcracks and all) and a cowgirl chorus. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this song is, but it's funny. Very funny.

Money, oh, money, oh, where have you gone
I need me some money to have me some fun
Gonna pick up my guitar and write me some hits
Build me some houses and blow 'em to bits
Gonna furnish them boldly with style and with taste
Generate truckloads of solid waste

Hangnail
Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail

*whip crack*

Have you ever seen a man with a hangnail?
Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail

*whip crack*

Money, oh, money, oh, where have you gone
I need me some money to have me some fun
Gonna pick up my guitar and write me some hits

*whip crack*

Hangnail
Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail

Have you ever seen a man with a hangnail
Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail

*whip crack*

Money, oh, money, oh where have you gone?

*whip crack*