Splendor in the Grass

by

Pink Martini

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How do you describe this band to folks who have never seen them? Let's see, they write and sing songs in sing songs in French, Italian, Spanish and English. They sound like 50s cocktail music sometimes and like 90s jazz sometimes. The two lead members both went to Harvard and the composer/pianist is a musical genius. And they come from, of all places, Portland, Oregon!

The only way to really explain them is to play a few tracks from their CDs.. or better yet... see them LIVE in concert (nearly all of which seem to sell out!).

This is their fourth album and the word continues to spread. I was anxiously awaiting this disc and am not disappointed! (Well, maybe because of two tracks .... more on that in a minute). All the elements of their previous albums are there from the multi-lingual songs crafted by either lead singer China Forbes or collaborator Alex Marashian (who is responsible for 5 of the 13 songs here) to the great arrangements by co-leader Thomas Lauderdale. Though a couple of songs are sung in languages other than English (the translations are included in the booklet included.).

I really hated to drop my rating to a 4 but there are two tracks that seemed out of place. It was great that they got the staff in their office to join in on the track "Sing" (the Sesame Street/Carpenters song), but the song is so saccharine that even PM can't make it palatable on repeated listening. The other track that doesn't work as well is "Piensa en m", where 90 year old Mexican singer Chavela Vargas (artist Frida Kahlo's lover) provides the vocals. Her aged voice is a far cry from the dulcet tones of China Forbes and the musical flow stops when she follows the "Sing: track. All is well, though when the lyrically brief (just two verses) "New Amsterdam" closes out the disc, before a reprise of the lead off "Ninna nanna".

Though not my favorite PM CD, its heads above much of the other music out there. Pink Martini fans will definitely want this disc (while waiting anxiously for the next), and it's a good intro to those yet to discover the "musical magic" of the band.

Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"

I heard about this CD the day before it came out. I eagerly sampled the tracks on Amazon and came away thinking maybe Pink Martini had jumped the shark with this one. But then I remembered that I almost didn't buy Hey Eugene based on listening to the samples, so I bought it a couple of days later. I don't want to go through it track by track, but my general impressions are:

The first two tracks were what I have come to expect from Pink Martini. The musicianship is excellent and the music is innovative and fun. Then "Splendor in the Grass" came on and I thought, "Whoa! Here's where we part company." The lyrics are weak and the melody is bland. Midway through, they break into my favorite piece by Tschaikovsky and suddenly I was back on board, at least part way. After several more listenings, though, this one is a definite miss. It is puzzling that a band the caliber of Pink Martini would choose to record such a mediocre track.

It was evident what "And Then You're Gone" and "But Now I'm Back" were going to be just from reading the titles. This is a musical cliche that has been done to death in pop music at least since the sixties. But I found myself chuckling in places the first time through, so I guess they pull it off. "But Now I'm Back" nearly crosses the line into a novelty song, so the jury is still out on how it will hold up to repeated listening.

They lost me again at "Sing". They do this song as well as anyone I have ever heard, but some songs are so bad even Pink Martini can't fix them. Out of their four CD's, this is only the second of their tracks that won't take up space on my Zune.

"New Amsterdam" is a strange little song. Fortunately, I like strange little songs. Sometimes. The lyrics might make sense to one of the relatively few people in the world who think New York City is the center of the universe. For the other six billion or so of us, not so much. But they don't really detract from the song over all, and this track will likely be one of my favorites.

Except for two tracks noted above that would have been better left off, this is a pretty solid effort. There are a couple more tracks that are okay for background music, but don't reach out and grab your attention the way I had come to expect from this band. It was a tough call between three stars and four, but hey, this IS Pink Martini. This CD has a legitimate place in my collection but will not get listened to as much as the other three.

UPDATE: Seven months later, I rarely listen to this CD. Most of the tracks just don't hold up to repeated listening. I have owned their other CD's for several years and still listen to all of them often. This one just doesn't cut it. I have removed most of the tracks from my Zune, something I rarely do. Changing my rating from four stars to two.