Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology

Amazon.com
Career overviews programmed by the artists themselves are generally inconsistent affairs, usually due to the musicians' own eccentricities. For Duchess of Coolsville, this long-overdue Rickie Lee Jones compilation covering the years 1979-2003, she decided to sequence most of the songs in alphabetical order. It's a unique, yet rather bizarre, concept that dispenses with all sense of continuity, either chronological or musical. While this randomness behooves an artist as willfully eclectic as Jones, it also makes for a rollercoaster listening experience. Selecting tracks from 10 albums that alternately focused on folk, jazz, pop standards, and even electronica makes putting together any compilation of Jones's work a tough assignment, especially since each of her records has a distinctive flow. The 34 selections on the first two discs hit most, but not all, of the highlights from her often patchy releases. Disc 3 unearths seven demos, some live tracks, and several collaborations, few of which are revelatory.

Long in need of a sonic shining, these songs sparkle with fresh remastering, revealing production details most listeners will hear for the first time. While not the best or most coherent collection of Rickie Lee Jones's work that could have been assembled, this anthology provides a reasonably good overview of the Duchess of Coolsville's diverse, distinctive, and often dynamic career. --Hal Horowitz

Product Description
Rickie Lee Jones' career ascent began after famed rock front man Lowell George recored her composition "Easy Money" for a Little Feat album. As an inimitable song stylist, she first made her indelible mark with the scat-flavored hist "Chuck E's In Love" from her acclaimed 1979 self-titled debut LP. Ever since, Jones has blazed an artististically idiosyncratic path on a long string of beautiful, adventurous, and personal albums. Her more-than-distinctive vocals encompass rock, jazz, blues, classic pop, folk, and R&B inflections...Textured with fluent wordplay and delivered with true heart, Rickie Lee's sound is one of the most authentic and original in contemporary music.

Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology,Rickie Lee Jones,Rhino / Wea,Adult Alternative Pop/Rock,Album Rock,Folk-Rock,Pop,Pop/Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop,Singer/Songwriter,Soft Rock,United States of America

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Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology

Average customer rating: denlan Surprisingly, a little disappointing Beware of shorter version of "The Horses" Coolsville is Cool UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology Rickie Lee Jones Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Pop | Styles | Music Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music Soft Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Contemporary | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music Adult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music Rhino Records | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music Similar Items: The Sermon On Exposition Blvd. [Deluxe Limited Edition --- includes 5.1 SACD version and 40 minute DVD of making the record] Songs of a Prairie Girl Rickie Lee Jones Pirates Magic Time ASIN: B0009CTUS2 Release Date: 2005-06-28

Tracks:

1. A Tree On Allenford
2. Alter Boy
3. Beat Angels
4. Bitchenostrophy
5. Bye Bye Blackbird
6. Chuck E's In Love
7. Company
8. Coolsville
9. Cycles
10. Firewalker
11. Flying Cowboys
12. Ghost Train
13. Hey Bub
14. It Must Be Love
15. Living It Up
16. Magazing
17. On Saturday Afternoons in 1963
18. Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)
19. Sailor Song

Tracks:

1. Satellites
2. Scary Chinese Movie
3. Skeletons
4. Stewart's Coat
5. Horses
6. Last Chance Texaco
7. Tigers
8. Traces of the Western Slopes
9. Ugly Man
10. Up From the Skies
11. Vessel of Light
12. We Belong Together
13. Weasel and the White Boys Cool
14. Woody and Dutch On The Slow Train to Peking

Tracks:

1. Sunshine Superman
2. Makin' Whoopee! -- with Dr. John
3. Autumn Leaves -- with Rob Wasserman
4. Evening of My Best Day (Live)
5. Atlas Marker (Aviator) (Live) -- with Bill Frisell
6. Easter Parade -- with Blue Nile
7. My Funny Valentine (Live)
8. Young Blood (Demo)
9. After Hours (Twelve Bars Past Goodnight) (Demo)
10. Easy Money (Demo)
11. Rodeo Girl (Demo)
12. Satellites (Demo)
13. Atlas Marker (Bruce Mix-Demo)
14. Theme from Gravity (Demo)
15. Rondo for 3 Apartments on 34th Street (Demo)

Amazon.com

Career overviews programmed by the artists themselves are generally inconsistent affairs, usually due to the musicians' own eccentricities. For Duchess of Coolsville, this long-overdue Rickie Lee Jones compilation covering the years 1979-2003, she decided to sequence most of the songs in alphabetical order. It's a unique, yet rather bizarre, concept that dispenses with all sense of continuity, either chronological or musical. While this randomness behooves an artist as willfully eclectic as Jones, it also makes for a rollercoaster listening experience. Selecting tracks from 10 albums that alternately focused on folk, jazz, pop standards, and even electronica makes putting together any compilation of Jones's work a tough assignment, especially since each of her records has a distinctive flow. The 34 selections on the first two discs hit most, but not all, of the highlights from her often patchy releases. Disc 3 unearths seven demos, some live tracks, and several collaborations, few of which are revelatory.

Long in need of a sonic shining, these songs sparkle with fresh remastering, revealing production details most listeners will hear for the first time. While not the best or most coherent collection of Rickie Lee Jones's work that could have been assembled, this anthology provides a reasonably good overview of the Duchess of Coolsville's diverse, distinctive, and often dynamic career. --Hal Horowitz

Album Description

Rickie Lee Jones' career ascent began after famed rock front man Lowell George recored her composition "Easy Money" for a Little Feat album. As an inimitable song stylist, she first made her indelible mark with the scat-flavored hist "Chuck E's In Love" from her acclaimed 1979 self-titled debut LP. Ever since, Jones has blazed an artististically idiosyncratic path on a long string of beautiful, adventurous, and personal albums. Her more-than-distinctive vocals encompass rock, jazz, blues, classic pop, folk, and R&B inflections...Textured with fluent wordplay and delivered with true heart, Rickie Lee's sound is one of the most authentic and original in contemporary music.

Customer Reviews:

denlan.......2007-02-13

It's a shame, I wonder sometimes how some no talented singers like Rickie Lee Jones managed to even sing somewhere and have a record company sign them. She's awful, no voice at all. I rated 1 star only because 0 star is not available on the scale.

Surprisingly, a little disappointing.......2007-01-20

Technically, you could buy RLJ's first and second albums and you'd have the best of Rickie Lee Jones. Rickie Lee never again equalled the orchestrated hipster pop of the eponymously titled Rickie Lee Jones and her sophomore effort Pirates. There were flashes of such energy and brilliance elsewhere, but no other album was a sustained success from start to finish.

It was probably a wise business decision for Rhino records to attempt this collection instead of simply remastering those first two masterpiece albums. I don't consider it an artistic triumph, however.

On the plus side, Rhino has equalized or otherwise processed the original material so carefully that songs from different recording venues using different techniques of recording (digital and analog) sound now sound organically whole and integrated with each other. Mainly this involved cutting down a lot of the high frequency content of the originals, rendering Rickie Lee's voice less piercing, but also de-emphasizing the percussion and the brilliant overtones of the guitars. That's not an unreservedly good thing, but it works in the context of making an anthology album.

The alphabetical organization of the tracks does not really work, either. Normally such collections are laid out chronologically, and that probably would have been a better choice here, except that it would have made the falloff in the quality of RLJ's recordings more evident.

The bonus tracks, demos, and miscellaneous on disc three are interesting for the RLJ fan. I don't see them as having lasting replay value.

Listening to this set has lowered Rickie Lee Jones' art in my estimation. I already own most of her records in one format or another. But if this is supposed to RLJ's best, then one must admit that the best of albums like Magazine and Ghostyhead are a bit overrated. Rhino should just get on with remastering her first and second albums.

Beware of shorter version of "The Horses".......2006-11-03

This is an awesome collection of Rickie Lee Jones' work. Of course there are some glaring omissions as other reviewers have pointed out. Still, I would have given this collection a full 5 stars if it had included the full version of "The Horses." Did anybody else notice that the version included on this anthology has been shortened? They have completely taken out the part of the song where Rickie sings "When I Was Young, I was a Wild, Wild One." It's true that she sings this line in the song "Flying Cowboys" as well and the full version of that song is included here. But, I always found it incredibly charming and cool that she sang the same line in "The Horses" and it is a shame that it has been edited out for this release. So, we still have to go back to our unremastered "Flying Cowboys" CD to hear "The Horses" as it was originally recorded.

Coolsville is Cool.......2006-07-30

This album is a wonderfully eclectic collection of Rickie Lee's music from laid back chart toppers like Chuck E to the original rendition of classics like Bye Bye Blackbird. Should be in every Rickie Lee Jones fan's collection.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!.......2006-06-16

When I heard these songs I felt that there was something missing for me. True, I am not a die-hard fan. It's a shame that Rickie Lee never had the opportunity to cut a jazz duet with Chet Baker. Or a pop duet with Bob Dylan. Their vocal styles would have mixed to perfection! However, all is not lost... hopefully she still has an opportunity to join her vocal skills with the talents of William Hung. You go girl.

Rap Music:

1. Emotive [Explicit Lyrics]
2. Eye to the Telescope [Import]
3. Fresh Wine for the Horses
4. Fun House [Original recording remastered]
5. Gloria Estefan - Greatest Hits
6. Greatest Hits
7. Greatest Hits [Import]
8. Hau Ruck
9. Heart Shaped World
10. Honeycomb

Rap Music

rap music

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