Romi Mayes
Achin In Yer Bones
(Self-release; 2008)
4.5/10
Romi Mayes doesn’t seem to have the aches and pains necessary to be a ramblin’ blues player. It’s like the album lures you in with a couple blues songs and then falls into pop-country jargon. The album manages to hold a tempo throughout the entire album, methodically boring me death. From its title to the lyrics, Mayes tries too hard to be blues to actually be blues. Not to mention its departure from traditional blues issues, turning to themes of motherhood – which is all well and good, but a blues album should have a long song to Jack Daniels; a damnation of a heart-breaking lover sung by a wailing and howling Gibson hollow body. Maybe it’s just me, but this album seems to of gotten lost along the way, all that’s achin’ is my ears.
-Tyler Alty
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Bell Orchestre
As Seen Through Windows
(Arts & Crafts; 2009)
8.5/10
Describing Bell Orchestre’s sound as post-rock, experimental, avant-garde, or instrumental would hardly do the unacquainted listener justice. How about just saying: it’s a Montreal thing? Montreal seems the only place where a collective of people (some from Arcade Fire), who list their influences as Lee “Scratch” Perry, Talk Talk and Arvo P
