Search - Kt Tunstall :: Eye to the Telescope (CD+DVD)

For those of you who like a little attitude with your music.

J. M. Jacobs | East Helena, MT, USA | 09/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was 56 when my older cousin invited me over for dinner and a look and listen to a concert DVD/CD situation he'd come across. After BBQing some steaks and corn on the cob with a little salad, we dished up some Ben & Jerry's and sat down with a nice glass of full-bodied red and our ice cream and threw this little gem in the player.



My cousin, the tour guide, had seen it before and he skipped over the music videos to the LIVE concert cuts right away.



What a heartless SOB.



WOW! (This was about June of 2009 and I was literally blown away.) HOW could I possibly not have heard of this woman before? She just rocks! (My cousin Bob was amused at my reaction to that first cut I watched... BIG TIME! I think he knew I'd like her and the boys pretty good.)



Song after song, lyric after lyric and melody after melody, I was dumbstruck with the quality I was seeing and hearing. Aside from the singing, K.T. can flat pick an acoustic guitar as well. Just a tiny little powerhouse of a gal! On one cut she goes over to these floor toms and just proceeds to kick out the jambs on a very tasty little drum solo that just sounds so right... almost hard to believe what you're seeing and hearing.



On the last cut, she does this sampling thing and multi-tracks herself so she can play along with the rhythm guitar lick and background vocal she's got captured. The cool thing here is they're captured as they are played as a part of the song, not like some gimmick deal or elements separate from the song at all. They're just played and woven right in.



You'd have thought she set her phasers on STUN...



At the end of the song, she's really rollin' and then she suddenly stops all of that other material and finishes with one line a cappella.



I'm tellin' ya, if I'd have had dentures they would have fallen right out of my mouth.



In these intervening months I've tried to think of just who K.T. Tunstall reminds me of and the short answer is nobody. This little gal is one-of-a-kind and it's the very best kind indeed. Her music is also hard to classify. It's kind of Indie blues, contemporary Americana (even though she's British) soul funk... pop... kinda. All I know for sure is that it's damn good whatever you want to call it.



If you're considering buying just the CD version, I would recommend against that. You'd be missing something very special in the person of one K.T. Tunstall and her band.



WARNING: Played twice, the rhythms and melodies and lyrics will be very difficult to get out of your head once they're in there. So 'do this at home' when you first fire it up!"