Would you believe that
this next artist is the granddaughter of Colonel Sherman Potter and Beatrix
Potter?
I sure hope not.
Because it is totally not true, and the reason is obvious: Beatrix Potter is
old enough to be Col. Potter’s mother! Also, Col. Potter is a fictional
character, and thus incapable of siring children outside of the imaginary kind.
But I digress…here’s a
music review.
Disc 1365 is…. Daylight
Artist:
Grace Potter
Year of Release: 2019
What’s up with the
Cover?
Behold the cyclopean majesty of Grace Potter’s Giant Head. Her voice is even
bigger.
How I Came To Know
It: I
read a review of this album last year. It was enough to go check her out, and I
liked what I heard.
How It Stacks Up: I liked what I heard so much I went out
looking for two of her other albums as well. I found one of them (“The Lion, the
Beast and the Beat”) and am still looking for another. Of the two I have so
far, I rank “Daylight” #1.
Ratings: 3 stars
I didn’t learn anything special about my inmost soul listening to “Daylight.”
It didn’t break any new ground in terms of songwriting or production either. In
the end none of that mattered very much, however, because it does what it does
very well.
This is straightforward, mainstream music, straddling the safest confluences
of pop, rock and R&B. What makes it worth your time is the high level of excellence
it accomplishes in the execution of these well-worn paths.
It helps that Grace Potter has a voice that has unearthly power and tone.
She can sing any style of music, and on “Daylight” she proves it, ranging
through most of what popular music has to offer. She can croon with sweetness
in her head voice or belt out a rock growl from down in the chest with equal
effect. Listening to her slide from style to style as the individual song
demands is worth experiencing just for the technical joy of it all.
Eric Valentine’s production is nice and pure, and gives room for those
vocals to soar. And while this is a solo album, Potter has surrounded herself
with an exceptional set of musicians, including Heartbreaker Benmont Tench on
piano, and pop duo Lucius providing additional layers on backing vocals.
“Back to Me” is the perfect confluence of the album’s best
elements, featuring a mid-seventies R&B groove. Potter delivers a raspy
rock growl, which is offset by in-the-groove backing vocals from Lucius. Throw
in a horn section, and some proto-disco funk and you’ve got a song with a
little bit of everything that somehow manages to all fit together.
Another standout is “Release.” Here Potter trades in all that wild
funk production for a stripped down, emotionally raw song. Potter still belts
it out with authority, but this time her vocal is filled with pain and loss. Pianist
Michael Busbee is featured on this track, and his somber, majestic playing adds
even greater gravitas to the tune. When I was looking him up my heart caught in
my throat when I saw he died of brain cancer in October 2019, only a month after
this record came out. If this was one of his last recordings, he left a worthy
legacy.
Lyrically, the album doesn’t have any revelatory moments, although Potter’s
vocals infuse what is there with plenty of emotion. On the best songs, she
draws you in and transports the words to a higher plane than they earn on their
own. On the lesser tracks, I found myself thinking they should be appearing on
an episode of American Idol. You know, those songs that give the singer lots of
room to show how great they are but that are generic enough not to offend the middle-America
sensibilities of the voters.
While that’s a bit of a criticism (a hypocritical one given that I still
watch American Idol), it is a muted one. If anything, I’m picking up on the
accessibility of these tunes, and wondering why Grace Potter isn’t knocking out
chart-topping hits.
In the end, I wasn’t overwhelmed by this record, but it does go beyond
simply technical prowess, managing more than a few moments of genuine transcendence
in the process.
Best tracks: Back
To Me, Every Heartbeat, Release, Shout It Out
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