All Artists: Malibu Storm Title: Malibu Storm Members Wishing: 1 Total Copies: 0 Label: Rounder / Umgd Release Date: 8/10/2004 Genres: Country, Jazz, Pop Style: Today's Country Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC: 011661048621 |
Malibu Storm Malibu Storm Genres: Country, Jazz, Pop
While still teenagers, Michael Alden and his twin sisters Dana and Lauren won music competitions, performed professionally on the contemporary bluegrass circuit, and even self-released an album, Duality, in 1996. Malibu St... more » | |
Larger Image |
CD Details
Synopsis
Amazon.com While still teenagers, Michael Alden and his twin sisters Dana and Lauren won music competitions, performed professionally on the contemporary bluegrass circuit, and even self-released an album, Duality, in 1996. Malibu Storm is their first for Rounder and is a potent introduction to the various facets of their compelling talents. With the exception of the instrumental "Clover," the trio works with a bracing range of outside material, showcasing their playing and, most especially, their vibrant, genetically linked harmony singing. They know the roots of the music they love and are not afraid to branch out, fearlessly drawing from such disparate sources as Def Leppard ("Photograph"), Janis Ian ("Some People's Lives"), and Allen Toussaint ("Working in a Coal Mine"). --David Greenberger Similarly Requested CDs
|
CD ReviewsNewgrass with more of an edge than ever before Michael | AngryCountry.com | 08/02/2004 (5 out of 5 stars) "Lyrics that are absolutely country, harmonies that rival the top groups in Nashville and a style that is all their own. These are the trademarks of Malibu Storm and their debut album from Rounder Records. I highly reccomend it!" What a disaster I. G. Mrs Thurston | UK | 04/11/2007 (1 out of 5 stars) "Remember the superb album album that these girls released several years ago as "The Schankman Twins"? I can't believe that this is the same twins who have totally forsaken their roots and produced one of the worst albums I have every heard. It has no identity and the girls have squandered a wonderful opportunity to follow in the steps of Alison Krauss etc. It does seem to suggest that Malibu Storm have tried to rid themselves of the "country" connection and they have certainly succeeded. What Rob Ickes and Bryan Sutton are doing on this CD defeats me." Surfgrass?? Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 10/23/2004 (4 out of 5 stars) "Their given name probably conjures up fun in the sun, and surf-rock music a la the Ventures and the Beach Boys. Their sound, however, is a modern take on bluegrass. So it goes with the debut album of sisters Dana Burke and Lauren Mills and their brother Michael Alden--collectively known as Malibu Storm.
With Dana on vocals and banjo, Lauren on fiddle and vocals, and Michael on bass and vocals, but utilizing many of the Usual Suspects (Bryan Sutton; Adam Steffey; Rob Ickes) of Nashville's bluegrass session musicians community, Malibu Storm have made a very good start for themselves here. In general, most of the songs here, including the Rebekka Bramlett-Beth Nielsen Chapman composition "Old Hickory Lake", are well-suited for their newgrass (or is it "surfgrass") approach. Others, like their down-home cover of Lee Dorsey's 1966 R&B classic "Working In A Coal Mine", get an unusual treatment with the traditional bluegrass instruments. Obviously, the one track on this album that is liable to raise some ire with many (it already has here, at least once) is their cover of Def Leppard's 1983 arena-rock smash "Photograph." Cries of "Heresy!" are likely to be heard here more and more often from now on--to think that this song could receive a bluegrass approach! Personally, though, even if this version gets steeped in controversy, I don't think the trio have done any worse by covering this Def Leppard song than Dolly Parton did by "bluegrassing" up Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven." Overall, this is a fairly good album--probably not totally perfect (and of course there's the matter of the Def Leppard cover), but compared to much of the dreck Nashville has force-fed its audience in recent years, you can do far, far worse than Malibu Storm." |