Last Days at the Lodge

Amos Lee's most personal album

A thirty year old composer, singer and poet Amos Lee was born in Philadelphia and could probably make a great teacher but after two years of working in an elementary school he decided to pursue a career of a musician. His first demo recordings immediately attracted the attention of a legendary Norah Jones with whom Lee goes on collaborating even today and soon he started to perform with such artists as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Paul Simon. This summer the talented artist releases his third record already called Last Days At The Lodge. His wonderful voice often passing to a most pleasant falsetto has become a bit tougher on the new work although stylistically Amos Lee sticks to his favorite direction of folk mixed with jazz and a splendid soul. There is again enough of introspection on the lyrics but this time around the singer opens his soul to the listeners more willingly and tells of his strong parts at the same time. Thus Last Days At The Lodge has proved Amos Lee's most personal album which makes it especially interesting so it will well refine any music collection.

Wonderfully romantic songs on Last Days At The Lodge

Album Last Days At The Lodge is a collection of wonderfully romantic songs filled with the man's reserved feelings. It opens with quite a heavy composition Listen reminding of Lenny Kravitz's works and although the voice timbres of the two artists are completely different there is some resemblance in their manner of performance which is a bit tough but Lee's falsetto will not let you go too far making comparisons. An amazingly beautiful song Won't Let Me Go refined with a fiddles that harmonizes wonderfully with the singer's voice pleases with a simple lyrics which is nevertheless is understandable for all, the same goes about Baby I Want You a guitar ballad the complicated tune of which fully compensates the unpretentious rhymes. An incomparable bass line of one of the album's best tracks Truth underlines in the best way the power of Amos' voice whereas What's Been Going On is a slower composition full of reflections with quite a catchy chorus. Guitars dominate again on It Started To Rain, another philosophic track with wonderfully precise metaphors in the lyrics while an encouraging song Kid is able to give strength and confidence to everyone who finds oneself in an unpleasant situation. A song-story Ease Back is all made of Amos' life observations and the album closer is Better Days, a sad mixture of jazz and soul again surprising with this outstanding artist's great singing.

The singer's successful tactics

Norah Jones has been helping Amos Lee from the very beginning of his career, for instance, the artist's eponymous debut album was produced by her bassist Lee Alexander and the singer herself performed several songs together with Amos. Today, however, Amos Lee is rather an independent figure of folk, jazz and soul, and Last Days At The Lodge demonstrates to us the musician's special approach to work. Evidently he has a principle to make none of the tracks too complicated. Each of the songs is complex either with its unusual melody or especially vivid performance or lyrics filled with stylistic devices. Thanks to that a listener can relax easily and not be distracted by different song's aspects concentrating the attention on what the author considers significant in this or that case. This trick makes a great effect: the 11 tracks all lasting less than forty minutes are not bothering, on the contrary, one wants to start all over again after the first listening in order to understand deeper the complicated lyrics of some songs and enjoy the unique half tones and high notes of the others. Perhaps the singer will change his tactics next time but the one he has chosen recording Last Days At The Lodge has definitely worked.