This will probably seem redundant to most of you, but for those who have yet to get hip to Sam Phillips, here's some quick background stuff. Sam has been in the music biz for quite sometime. First as a Gospel singer, only she wasn't Sam then, she was Leslie. Leslie was a very popular artist, but grew tired of the artistic limitations that the powers that be imposed on her, so she packed her bags and ran away from CCM-land (but not before recording her best effort up to that point, 1987's The Turning). She then landed the big secular deal (with Virgin), married her producer (T-Bone Burnett), and released two brilliant records (The Indescribable Wow in 1988, and Cruel Inventions in 1991), which garnered rave reviews from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and the like, but didn't exactly sell like hotcakes. All of this to bring us to the official `start' of this review for her latest release, Martinis & Bikinis.
Will Martinis and Bikinis be the first Sam Phillips record to "sell like hotcakes?" It's hard to say. I'm still not quite sure why the first two didn't. Sam's quirky brand of Alternative pop is in a similar vein as Tori Amos, or Sarah McLachlan, but for my money is putting out far better work. Her record company seems more determined than ever to push this one over the top. Let's hope so, because I for one am getting sick and tired of seeing great music fall between the cracks while lesser artists thrive.
Martinis isn't a huge departure from Sam's last three albums, stylistically, but I'm not so sure that's such a bad thing. Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and The Cocteau Twins all could be accused of staying in the same vein on concurrent recordings, but I don't hear anyone complaining. Sam has found a niche for herself artistically, and the last five years or so have seen her working to perfect her wonderfully unique sound.
Sam's lyrics read like poetry. No cliches or obvious rhyming schemes. Her music is instead filled with images of clearly defined stories. "The camera angles and the name campaigns / the stare cuts and the latest extremes / the way we sell ourselves the way we our greed / how long it takes to hear our dreams" (from Same Changes). The song Baby I Can't Please You seems to be about the struggle to keep a relationship going. "I know you say love when you mean control / you buy the truth and your heart is cold / so you live in shadows / you try to tell the world how it should spin / but you live in terror with the hollow men..." People who like to read the lyric sheet as the listen should enjoy this. The only lyric that's not included is Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon, which Sam does a great version of.
Forget what I said before, Martinis and Bikinis is my new favorite records so far in `94. I think many others will agree too. There's nothing overtly evangelical, but the lyrics are certainly very spiritual. Now hopefully the rest of the world will catch up to give this gal the success she deserves.