Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me (CD)

 

Sound: B     Music: B

 

 

This review will be done as a one-act, three-person play entitled "A Typical

Marriage Counseling Session". I make no claim that this play is good. 

Characters ---

 

Mrs. Pro: A happy, positive thinking woman. Very upbeat and sunny.

 

Mr. Con: Her husband. A stick-in-the-mud who never sees the bright side.

 

Mr. Fact: Marriage counselor. Sensitive, affable, polite, but firm.

 

(This play takes place in a small office. Mr. Fact is going over a file.

Mrs. Pro and Mr. Con walk in, arguing.)

 

Fact: Wow. We haven't even gotten started and you're already at it! What's the deal?

 

Con: Me and my wife never agree on anything!

 

Pro: I'd like for us to agree on things.

 

Con: We would, but you don't let us!

 

Fact: Oh, come on. What's the issue now?

 

Con: We can't agree about this new Nellie McKay CD.

 

Fact: Oh, yeah. "Get Away From Me", her debut. What about it?

 

Con: I hate it.

 

Pro: He's crazy. I think it's wonderful.

 

Con: You're wrong! You're wrong! You're wrong!

 

Pro: I'm right! I'm right! I'm right!

 

Fact: Calm down, please! Now, Mrs. Pro, explain why you like it.

 

Pro: This girl is talented. She can sing and play piano very well. She's a true artist, unlike all those Hilary Duffs and Avril Lavignes. She's got some soul.

 

Con: Give me a break. Everyone with a set of vocal chords has a CD these days. She's just another face doomed to be lost in the crowd. Besides, she's only nineteen.

 

Pro: What's wrong with that?

 

Con: Nineteen-year-old girls making music is a bad thing. I mean, what can a nineteen-year-old teach me about life? They're just a bunch of Chatty Cathys who think they know everything because they've had a year of college.

 

Pro: Well, she must be doing something right if the man who engineered the freaking Beatles' "Abbey Road" (Geoff Emerick) is producing her. So you know that this CD sounds excellent. I think you have a problem acknowledging McKay's immense talent. Don't you think she has some potential?

 

Con: Maybe, but she needs time to develop.

 

Fact: (checking in file) It says in my research that Ms. McKay only began writing songs last year.

 

Con: You see? She just got started. She hasn't honed her songwriting talent yet. And here she is trying to rap and do all this different kind of stuff...

 

Pro: Don't you get it? She's versatile. She can sing jazzy tunes or rap or whatever. She may not do everything well but she puts more effort into it than most.

 

Fact: (checking in file) It also says here that the total running time for her double CD set is sixty minutes.

 

Pro: For each CD?

 

Fact: No, combined.

 

Con: What a rip-off!! You could literally put the whole thing on one CD! You mean I gotta pay double CD price for something that could fit on one freaking CD?!! This is insane!

 

Pro: I don't know what to say to that, but I do know that this is one of the most unique new artists of 2004. Songs like "Really" and "Manhattan Avenue" are well-done, jazzy and mellow. Also, "Suitcase Song" has a neat Bacharach feel with vocal harmonies reminiscent of late-60s Beach Boys. Also, "Waiter" has some amazing vocal gymnastics that recall Queen's Freddie Mercury and Sparks' Russell Mael.

 

Con: I'll give you that, but she just shouldn't be rapping at all! There's three tracks "Sari", "Inner Peace", and "Work Song") where she tries to rap, which is three too many. She doesn't sound like Eminem so much as a female Paul Barman.

 

Pro: Ugh, Paul Barman sucks!

 

Con: I'm glad we agree on something.

 

Fact: Then my job is done.

 

FIN

 

 

-   Michael J. Farmer