Search - Jen Chapin :: Ready

Are you Ready for this?

Graeme A. G. Scott | Scotland | 01/24/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jen Chapin

Ready - Hybrid Recordings HY20046



Of all the talented extended Chapin clan Jen presents listeners with the greatest challenge. Unlike the others who, in general stay within acoustic roots as a genre, Jen has studiously been ploughing her own furrow.



The follow-up to 2004's Linger, which I liked as individual songs, this is altogether a much more satisfying CD. Unlike its predecessor, Ready has a totally rounded and feeling of completeness, to it. Once again the songs are packed with intelligent and articulate lyrics yet somehow, overall, it just hangs together better.



Produced with a fine attention to detail by Stephan Crump, Jen has assembled eleven songs that sit somewhere in a, no pun intended, hybrid of jazz, progressive jazz, blues and art-house folk. The resulting amalgams of sounds are those that generate the listening challenge. Worry not though as, if you open your ears, the journey is rewarding.



Complex musical arrangements underpin Jen's lyrics which, by any standards, could not be described as straightforward. To quote from track three " wild is this luscious life crashing by - grab it by the ankles - scream laugh and cry" and that is exactly what happens with this CD. It grabs you by the ankles and drags you screaming, laughing and crying into its core, shakes and stirs you, before spitting you back out again. At this point you head back to the replay button so intoxicated by the experience that you want more.



Standouts for me are the sequential Goodbye at once both hypnotic and haunting; the gorgeous Let It Show and a wonderful evocation to her home and inspiration NYC. Not far behind are Skin, Strip It Bare and Go On. Plaudits also, for exquisite playing, to Jamie Fox on guitar.



Graeme Scott.

Blues Matters magazine and Radio VRN1287 Scotland



"

Gorgeous! Absolutely Gorgeous!

Nicole Denise | New York, NY | 08/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What an album! Every parent (and everyone who knows a parent) should buy this album to own a copy of "Let It Show", a song which should be the world's anthem for raising happy children filled with wonder and hope. This song looks out for the little ones and encourages them to live their every dream to the fullest. Equally compelling to the album's intricate musical arrangements are Jen's live performances of these songs which completely captivate the audience and reach every listener.



Jen's magical imagery shows her mature understanding of human nature and is a refreshing voice to hear. Her songs are truly poetry set to music. Goodbye's melody is beautifully hypnotic and moving, and has the unique quality of never leaving your memory from the first time you hear it. Jen has a wonderful ability to create eloquent melodies like that, and couples them with stories that make you sigh and reflect. In "Goodbye", she states: "Once I dined in a palace of barnacle walls, would climb with the snails over seaweed and never would fall". Rich, imagery-filled lyrics like that are found in EVERY one of Jen's songs.



Her lyrics go BEYOND merely "saying" something; instead, they "show" in vivid detail and you'll be glad you listened.

"

READY - A SPECTACULAR ECLECTIC COLLECTION!

Anonymous | 08/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The terrific career of Jen Chapin continues to skyrocket, as evidenced by the release of READY. This collection - almost all written by Jen, herself - is her finest CD yet, for it is a marvelous and moving assemblage of her unique style, through which she incorporates remnants of blues, progressive jazz, ballad and folk in a soft, yet active, manner rarely heard anywhere else. Among the absolute best selections on READY is the remarkably moving song, LET IT SHOW, written in recognition of her now eleven month old son, Maceo. Listening and listening and then listening again to READY is infectious. Once purchased, you'll not leave your home without it in your purse or pocket. Truly, a GREAT CD!"