Rhett Miller cut his teeth with the alt-country Old 97’s, but years before the band released Too Far To Care, the catchiest and most compelling distillation of its cow-punk-meets-Brit-Invasion template, Miller put out his own little-heard first solo album, Mythologies. Now 2,800 miles from Dallas, where he got his start, Miller is a family man and has released his fifth studio album, The Dreamer. On all counts, the LP marks a return to basics for Miller after three studio albums that toned down the twang, ratcheted up the pop smarts and layered on the studio frills. Miller will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our recent feature on him.
Miller: Since her debut, Suburban Nature, like a million years ago, Sarah Jaffe has grown, song by song, album by album, year by year, in the way true “artists” should. Her new album, The Body Wins (Kirtland), is a freaking triumph. The sounds are new and different and freaky, but her voice is the constant. And it’s a force of nature, breathy but gig, insistent and ethereal. I predict years of brilliance from Sarah.
Video after the jump.
2 replies on “From The Desk Of Rhett Miller: Sarah Jaffe”
It’s a piece of overproduced pop crap from hell. There are a couple of songs that you can really hear the power in her voice, but the passion is lost in drum loops and needless sound effects. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her original sound, which I actually thought was VERY ORIGINAL. I hope she doesn’t continue down this road. I understand the need to make a living, but this album remakes her entirely, and I hear only fragments of the fearless artist that recorded ‘Suburban Nature’ or ‘Ever Born Again’. ‘The Body Wins’ pits her against the likes of every American Idol contestant touring off their temporary fame. She’d do better to slowly build her fan base with people that actually like music. I very much look forward to hearing more of her brilliance, sans this misguided influence.
Stacie Craig couldn’t be more wrong. Artist don’t want to make the same thing over and over again, that is what separates an true artists from a over produced pop star. The point of her making music is to grow and challenge herself. You have complety missed the point and your motives in this lowly review are selfish and lame and close minded. if you want to hear Suburban Nature again, than press play, because it already exists. If you want to see how a real artist can grow and challenge themselves and their craft, then The Body Wins is a perfect example.