Diana Krall … Harry Connick Jr. … Josh Groban … Norah Jones … Michael Bublé. What to make of young, attractive musicians who seem rooted in the past? Are they tryin’ to trick us by offering lite and easy-to-chew nostalgia?
Sorry, but that’s a big loada hooey. Even though the visually-oriented marketing makes me a little nervous (especially in the case of Krall … though her “Peel Me A Grape” makes me forget for a while), it’s not fair for me to say that I know what the motivation is.
Hey, maybe they just like the music.
This is surely the case with Michael Bublé. This live (mostly) CD and DVD showcases Bublé the singer and showman. He just might be a little too good for his youth. Now, the concert recording and behind the scenes footage on the accompanying DVD certainly could be a cynically constructed marketing vehicle for Bublé. After all, he’s photogenic and the ladies seem to love him. But … that’s not what I’m sensing. How Bublé came to love music from the Frank Sinatra/Bobby Darin era is hinted at by references to his grandfather. This comes across as genuine passion for the music, far beyond mere respectfulness.
I grew up listening to tons of Sinatra, Darin, Dean Martin and others so, yeah, I could be falling prey to nostalgia a bit … but one thing is certain: Bublé can sing. The slow burn of “Fever” an “The Way You Look Tonight” is set against the uptempo “Moondance” and “For Once In My Life.” There’s also a beautiful version of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.”
The concert ends with “My Funny Valentine”: Here, a bunch of Bublé’s influences show up. I hear some Sinatra, Darin and (surprisingly) Chet Baker.
So is Michael Bublé the “real thing”? That’s hard to say, but I’ve gotta give him some credit: He’s putting a ton of energy into, as his grandfather said, ‘bringing the music back.’ That can’t be a bad thing.
[amazon_enhanced asin=”B0001IN07Q” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B005H0IW6W” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B002TDHEKU” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B000WAYQ6C” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B000NVIXDW” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /]
- Why the Rolling Stones’ Harrowing ‘Gimme Shelter’ is Still Revealing New Depths - November 18, 2024
- How Talking Heads’ ‘Fear of Music’ Opened Up a World of Art and Sound - August 5, 2024
- How Deep Cuts Propelled Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ - June 4, 2024
MORE FROM AROUND THE WATERCOOLER AT SOMETHING ELSE! TOWERS …
S. VICTOR AARON: I watched a 60 Minutes piece on Buble last Sunday. That was my first real exposure to this guy. He sings fine and all, but I was left wondering why he’s gotten all this buzz that Harry Connick has never quite gotten. Connick IMO has a better voice for showtunes and is an eminently better showman. Am I missing something?
NICK DERISO: I’ve tried to like him, but he feels like a copy of Connick’s copy of Frank. Not bad, but terribly, boringly second hand. And Buble over-enunciates to an annoying degree.
TOM JOHNSON: Better marketing?
NICK DERISO: Say what you will about Connick (I’ve copped to my own guilty pleasure there: http://somethingelsereviews.com/2007/05/01/guilty-pleasures-harry-connick-jr-blue-light-red-light-1991/), but he’s a very dynamic performer — in particular when compared to Buble, whose style on stage is as stilted as his pronunciation. Harry, on the other hand, has too much Louisiana in him to play it too straight.
TOM JOHNSON: The guy *can* sing, but I can’t figure out why the hell they slather him with autotune in this awful piece of ****: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJmKkU5POA I know it’s the trend and all, but autotune on a voice that actually can sing might be a bigger sin than on those who can’t sing. Totally saps all the personality out of it. I saw this video every single day whenever it was out at the same exact time when I got up for work. Flipping around the channels and every time I came upon VH1, there it was, same damned time. I kind of got fascinated listening to his robotic voice, and then started imagining sitcoms it could be a theme song for . . . I finally settled on one involving a kind of twist on Perfect Strangers, where the premise is a guy finds out his wife is cheating but she throws him out of the house and has to find a new home, and just as he does, he also finds out he has a long-lost (hilarious!) foreign brother who is coming to live with him. Oh, and because his wife is a terrible human being, he has to take care of their just-born baby (see the episode “Unfit Mothers.”) See, it all fits right in to the theme of the song. Hilarity ensues!