#718 Laura Nyro - More Than a New Discovery

In a recent conversation with Sherman Alexie in The Believer, Neko Case muses about how doing a sad song in a major key, or in a happy tone, or otherwise complicating its nature, somehow made it sound sadder still. Then along comes an album that explores that idea, confirming and defying, it, sometimes at the same time. Heck, Nyro explores just about every kind of sadness-delivery mechanism there is, getting into the soul from every angle, singing torch songs, death songs, and whatever beautiful bittersweet thing California Shoeshine Boys is.

So look, I don't even know if I can say this without sounding like some kind of bigot, but it bears mentioning that I assumed Nyro was black when I first heard this. Wait! Before you cast the first stone, listen to some Temptations, some Stevie, some Mary Wells, maybe the Top of the Stax compilation, and then this album and tell me you don't hear a thread running on through them. She's got that kind of cut-to-the-bone power that I mostly associate with the aforementioned, who, you know, happen to be almost entirely black, and are almost entirely excellent. We make do with the information our pattern-finding brains derive.

That aside: there's some heartfelt stuff here that I will confess being affected by. Not my scene, not my sound, but the girl can sing, and the songs hit hard 3.5/5

edit 7/13/15: god. I'm the worst reviewer of music ever.