Vanity Fair - Hot tracks column - Lisa Robinson
One of our most important (under-appreciated) composer-singers is Joe Henry, whose Tiny Voices is literate, melancholy, jazzy, and romantic.
The follow-up to the universally acclaimed Scar album from songwriter Joe Henry, who gained widespread attention for the work he did on Solomon Burke’s Grammy Award winning Don’t Give Up On Me album. Twelve brilliant tracks recorded with backing from avant-garde clarinetist [Read More...]
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‘Tiny Voices’ contains everything I like about Joe Henry albums. I really don’t know how he does it. ‘Trampoline’ was my introduction to Joe Henry’s music, and that record still blows me away. Soon after discovering Trampoline I went out and bought all of his music. I found something different in every record. (I recommend checking out all of them) Then ‘Fuse’ and ‘Scar’ came out and mixed things up a bit. I admit that it took me some time to fully appreciate them, but with time they really grew on me, like all of Joe’s
music. ‘Tiny Voices’ grabbed me from the start. It’s such a full and rewarding record. Laid back, but far from easy listening. The many instruments all leave their mark, and never sound cluttered. The sound is truly timeless. Very experimental, and yet straight forward at the same time. And of course the lyrics are amazing. I’ve never heard anything quite like it. Joe Henry fans that had a hard time following his last two records, as well as fans who love all of his previous releases should love this record. It would also be a great introduction to Joe Henry’s amazing music.
“Tiny Voices” is yet another beautifully discordant “jazzy” triumph for a vastly under appreciated artist. In the tradition of “Scar,” his previous masterpiece, Mr. Henry continues to explore the themes that have dominated his work from the beginning: love, loss, betrayal, transcendence and shatterd expectations. Defying the temptation of critics who would like nothing more than to pidgeonhole him - he’s been compared to everyone from Tom Waites to Elvis Costello - Mr. Henry continues to chart his own course. His musical palette, as wide as the Mississippi is long, ranges from folk to to jazz to Tin Pan Alley. And it’s all so seamless, you wonder how he does it. “Tiny Voices” is dominated by the lush, tastefully discordant jazzy background music that was used so effectively on “Scar,” although on “Tiny Voiices” it’s more restrained. He’s altogether eshewed the pop elements of his 1999 release “Fuse,” which brought him a smattering of the attention he deserves. Apart from his masterly musical explorations, Mr. Henry shows he can write a song with the best of them, including Waites and Costello. Mr. Henry’s “Flesh and Blood,” performed so powerfully by Solomon Burke on the Henry-produced record “Don’t Give Up On Me,” is one of my favorites:
“Come see the golden light,
Because I’ve turned the gold light on.
Sometimes, God knows, you’ve got to
Learn to shine on your own.
I step out of the darkness
And for a moment I’m onlyy living by your kiss,
And just for now our flesh and blood
Is no more real than this.”
This is music for people, adults, who think and feel. Buy it.
This album is tremendous. But was there ever a lazier adjective than “jazzy?”
Alot of people fawned over the “jazz”-stylings of his album SCAR, but TINY VOICES is where he outstrips all hints of genre-exercise and reaches the place he’s been travelling towards his whole career. It both defines and transcends his oeuvre. TINY VOICES, like his previous two albums is soul music.
Impossible to listen to except in it’s entirety; with perhaps two exceptions I have never been so immediately and lastingly touched and thrilled by an album as with TINY VOICES.