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Spurred in large part by Katharine McPhee's energetic renditions of KT Tunstall's infectious debut single "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on the 2006 season of AMERICAN IDOL, the Scottish singer-songwriter became a somewhat unlikely mainstream ... Full Descriptionpop star. Second album DRASTIC FANTASTIC refines the mix of alternative rock, Delta blues, and singer-songwriter folk that defined her debut album, EYE TO THE TELESCOPE, putting straight pop songs like "Hold On" and "I Don't Want You Now" comfortably next to jazzier tunes like "Someday Soon" and bluesy rockers like "White Bird." Tunstall has grown as both a lyricist and a melodicist in the span between her first and second album, and DRASTIC FANTASTIC also features a more assertive sound as evinced by the tongue-in-cheek glam-rock cover photo.
Drastic Fantastic CD
Note: DRASTIC FANTASTIC is also available in a two-disc deluxe edition with a bonus DVD.
Personnel: KT Tunstall (vocals, guitar, ukulele, cello, Fender Rhodes piano, glockenspiel); Paul Stacey (guitar); Jimmy Hogarth (acoustic guitar); John Petrocelli (Spanish guitar); Sam Lewis (dobro); David Angel, David Davidson (violin); Kristin Wilkinson (viola); John Catchings (cello); Kenny Dickenson (Fender Rhodes piano); Steve Osborne, Arnulf Linder (bass guitar); Luke Bullen (drums); Willy Mason (background vocals).
Recording information: Eastcote Studios, London, England.
Kt Tunstall
Rolling Stone (p.89) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's high-gloss folk pop, confessional in form if not in content, crafted with intelligent attention to every detail." Spin (p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Her effortless melodies drive jaunty power pop and fingerpicked coffeehouse folk." Q (p.90) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'White Bird' has a slinky campfire-jazz ambience....Better yet is 'Beauty Of Uncertainty', which builds from sparsely plucked acoustic guitar and hushed whispers to a cascading climax..." Uncut (p.109) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "On DRASTIC FANTASTIC, you'll find haunting world-folk, scratchy blues...[and] stark, moody etudes." Hide Description K T Tunstall Drastic Fantastic Songs Purchase Drastic Fantastic CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Lyle Lovett My Baby Don't Tolerate CD (2003)
Drastic Fantastic album
$10.85 MY BABY DON'T TOLERATE was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Country Album. "My Baby Don't Tolerate" was nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
For someone who made his name on his unique songwriting acumen, Lyle Lovett didn't exactly inundate his fans with new material in the 1990s. He offered only two albums of newly written material, not counting I LOVE EVERYBODY's selection of old, previously unrecorded compositions. After a seven-year wait, Lovett defied expectations with MY BABY DON'T TOLERATE.
His new songs proved not to be wry, ever-so-clever set pieces like some of his most popular '80s tunes, but more economical creatures full of small observations and very little of Lovett's trademark stylistic quirks. Aside from the occasional oddball touch, like name-checking German director Wim Wenders in a song about trucks, this is a pretty straightforward affair. The Western Swing-tinged arrangements are too tasteful (and tasty) for mainstream Nashville, but otherwise ...
| | K T Tunstall Eye To The Telescope CD (2006)
Drastic Fantastic CD music
$15.15 A runaway success in the U.K., EYE TO THE TELESCOPE, KT Tunstall's debut, finally hit the States in early 2006, a year after its initial release. On this assured 12-song set, the Scottish singer/songwriter mines a charmingly sensitive and intelligent vein of pop/rock that positions her somewhere in between Beth Orton and Sheryl Crow. The key to Tunstall's sound is her resonant and soulful voice, and the album's bold but never over-the-top production only serves to further enhance her songs. Though the highlights of the disc ...
| | K T Tunstall Acoustic Extravaganza CD (2006) With DVD
Drastic Fantastic music CDs
$14.59 Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall's debut, EYE TO THE TELESCOPE, proved the artist's mettle as a soulful pop chanteuse falling somewhere between Dido and Fiona Apple, yet it also underscored her unique sense of songcraft and powerfully earnest sensibility. The album's highly polished production is a bit distracting, however, which is one of the reasons the 10-song ACOUSTIC EXTRAVAGANZA is a treat. Featuring acoustic performances by Tunstall and her band, including a version of her first single, "Throw Me a Rope," the album offers a portrait of the artist in a pared-down setting that allows the songs and her lovely voice to shine.
Recorded and filmed on a cold day between Christmas and New Year's on the Scottish island of Skye, Tunstall unveils a delicious mix of stripped ...
| | Norah Jones Not Too Late CD (2007) Digipak
Drastic Fantastic songs
$15.69 For a young and commercially successful artist, Norah Jones has admirably avoided playing it too safe. After scoring an unlikely sales sensation and multiple Grammy award winner with 2002's torchy COME AWAY WITH ME, Jones shifted gears slightly to accent that album's country and folk elements on the 1970s-styled follow-up, FEELS LIKE HOME. Following that, Jones deliberately played with expectations, first becoming a low-key sideman in a quirky alt-country band called the Little Willies, then playing the lead role in a new movie by Hong Kong arthouse director Wong Kar-Wai.
Jones's third album, NOT TOO LATE, is perhaps not as extreme as any of those other moves away from her initial comfort zone, but it's a departure nonetheless. Recorded by Jones and longtime collaborator Lee Alexander in their home studio and featuring only self-penned material, NOT TOO LATE is far less polished than Jones's previous records, with many songs featuring little more than the singer's familiar croon, a Floyd Cramer-influenced piano, and Alexander's subtle bass. Not quite jazz, country, or pop, NOT TOO LATE fuses all of Jones's influences into an immediately identifiable whole. It's easily her most mature and personal album ...
| | Amy Winehouse Back To Black CD (2006)
Drastic Fantastic album
$12.45 BACK TO BLACK's production is an artful blend of sophisticated '60s R&B and 21st-century stylistic poaching, with "Tears Dry on Their Own" incorporating elements of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and Winehouse sounding like Billie Holiday fronting a reggae band on the old-fashioned cheating song "Just Friends." Densely packed with musical history and often conjuring a dark, Portishead-esque atmosphere, BACK TO BLACK is a sumptuous-sounding collection freighted with blunt confessionals of a lush life.
It doesn't take much listening to Amy Winehouse's 1960s pop period piece to realize that this is a tribute with an edge--nice girls back then didn't sing about boozing and rehab. Since her 2003 debut album, FRANK, Winehouse has been a frequent presence on the gossip pages of the U.K. tabloids, and her songwriting here candidly reflects her experiences with drinking, sex, and drugs.
Personnel: Amy Winehouse (background vocals); Binky Griptite, Thomas Brenneck (guitar); Helen Tunstall (harp); Perry Montague-Mason, Chris Tombling, Tom Pigott-Smith, Warren Zielinski, Boguslaw Kostecki, Liz Edwards, Mark Berrow, Peter Hanson, Everton Nelson, Jonathan Rees (violin); Jon Thorne, Katie Wilkinson, Rachel Bolt, Bruce White (viola); John Heley, Joely Koos, Anthony Pleeth (cello); Andy Mackintosh, ...
| | Robert Plant Raising Sand CD (2007)
Drastic Fantastic CD music
$14.15 Those who find the pairing of '70s rock god Robert Plant with contemporary bluegrass queen Alison Krauss unlikely have probably not been paying attention to Plant's latter-day work, which is full of intimate, acoustic-flavored balladry. While the organic-sounding, low-key Plant/Krauss collaboration, RAISING SAND, is a far cry from Led Zeppelin's stadium rock, it offers up some hauntingly moody textures that should appeal to "Battle of Evermore" admirers.
Consisting mostly of sagely chosen cover tunes, the album finds Plant and Krauss bringing their warm-but-eerie ...
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$14.25 Track Listing of songs: Headacher - Fireside; Pumpkin Eyes - Silver Scooter; Pink Chimneys - The Promise Ring; 88 Cubic Meters - Grander; Field - Christie Front ...
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Drastic Fantastic Music Review
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