Rickie Lee Jones - Ghostyhead

[d.a.walker]

I have been listening to this album loads lately, anyone else buy it? Came out in 1997 and was rather surprising in the fact that it was musically similar to Portishead and Tricky. It's worth it alone for the beautiful haunting Matters and Ghostyhead.

[RobB]

The only RLJ album I have is Flying Cowboys (1989) which I picked up on cassette in a charity shop for 10p a couple of years back.
I'd kept reading comparisons between (early) Stina and Rickie, so I thought I'd and have a listen and make my own mind up.
I played it once and then put the tape away so today I can't remember a single thing about it so I can safely say that Rickie didn't exactly make a lasting impression on me.

I'll have to give it another listen someday.

[sound world]

I like a lot of RLJ but mainly when she's covering jazz standards or in that vein.-eg 'Girl at her volcano' and 'Pop pop'.I've never heard of Daniel's one!
Personally I've never got this thing about similarity between her and Stina,which I attribute to laziness of music critics who usually know bugger all about music and hang their comparisons on the most obvious peg,like 'Stina is like Bjork because they're both from some Northern country', or 'Stina has a high voice (what they mean is that she has a distinctive timbre) so she's like RLJ'.

[barrett]

The only RLJ. that i have is about 8 different remixes of Little Fluffy Clouds. [angel]

[RobB]

or 'Stina has a high voice (what they mean is that she has a distinctive timbre) so she's like RLJ'.

Like when Stina is cutting down a tree and she sees it falling towards her she shrieks in a loud voice ' Timbreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'......thats quite distinctive!
......and RLJ is just as rubbish at cutting down trees?
No?

[d.a.walker]

Ghostyhead is the lesser spotted of her albums, mainly in that it is totally deleted, it came out in 1997 on Reprise Records (Uh oh!) and I don't think the world was ready for it really. In 2007 it sounds brilliant. It's very electronic, lots of loops, unusual instruments and weird sounds. The opening two tracks, particularly Little Yellow Town, are really bizarre, half spoken half sung descriptive stories over sparse electronic backgrounds. The one single, Firewalker, is brilliant almost folktronica pop! I particularly love the last half of the album which descends into epic and haunting numbers like Vessel Of Light and Scary Chinese Movie. It's well worth seeking out, it's an artist exploring music and doing it brilliantly.

[sound world]

Yes,I think I will try and hunt that down,thanks for the tip Daniel!

[d.a.walker]

Interestingly there is a lot in common between Ghostyhead and The Photographer's Wife. That weird david lynchesque electronic vibe (hehe Singing Radiator Girl) is here. There are actually 2 tracks here that remind me of Stina, Matters and Ghostyhead, but I didn't notice this until afterwards, and it's more in keeping with Stina's later music rather than MOAC and ASCHE.

Hope you're successful in tracking it down, let me know if you have any problems, I can certainly erm, provide, an idea of it hehe...

I've also got the single Firewalker, which never actually got released, all of the copies got quick limed in a pit outside of Croydon. It's got mainly rather distasteful remixes on it and one rather stunning 10 minute electronica suite version of it which sort of makes it more worthy.

[d.a.walker]

This is from her current album, which is probably going to top my albums of 2007 list now...

Rickie Lee Jones - Falling Up

[d.a.walker]

Aw crap, it's on youtube, i just cannot get it to link

Check it out though as it's her on mighty form!

[mgubia]

´

[RobB]

also, stina wrote in the liner notes of one of rickie lee jones compilations. tori amos did as well
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... fexqqsldhe

Thats very interesting to learn......and the compilation is relatively new (2005) as well.
Do you have the album yourself?
Any chance of posting here what Stina wrote?

[mgubia]

no, i dont have it. havent read what she wrote either, itd be interesting for sure

[aermancer]

yes yes shes brilliant
i love this album; scary chinese movie is great

i agree, that song is brilliant. the whole album is great, i haven't listened to any of her other albums though.

[d.a.walker]

I think Ghostyhead is her most experimental record, and I really love it for that reason. It's hard for me to pick a favourite song on it now, I go through phases of favouring a particular track depending on how I am.

At the moment I am rather taken with Sunny Afternoon and Howard ('Everyone knows one of those guys in school who kills everything he finds, every little cat, every mouse, every dog, likes to burn his sister with cigarettes').

It's an album that I think was ahead of it's time back in 1997/98, and even now tracks like Scary Chinese Movie sound alien.