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The Living and the Dead | 
| Artist: Jolie Holland
Label: Epitaph
Category: Music
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £9.98
You Save: £5.01 (33%)
New (16) from £9.70
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 2712
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5 x 0.2
EAN: 8714092695229
ASIN: B001EPB0QS
Release Date: October 20, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Mexico City | | • | Corrido Por Buddy | | • | Palmyra | | • | You Painted Yourself In | | • | Fox In Its Hole | | • | Your Big Hands | | • | Sweet Loving Man | | • | Love Henry | | • | Future | | • | Enjoy Yourself |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Up there with the best November 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I wanted to write in response to the other reviews which almost put me off buying this album which would have made me miss out on a really great cd - more consistently listenable than her others in my opinion. I have been a fan for a long time, initially due to her association with the Be Good Tanyas, and was a bit disappointed at the idea she had not delivered the same beguiling lyrics and unique style as on her previous 3 albums. Although there are less of the sparse and stripped-down guitar/vocals campfire songs than on her first album, Catalpa, The Living and The Dead is a fine collection of accessible and beautifully melodic country/blues songs that get better with every listen. The comments about the laughing/incidental sounds that should have been taken out only really apply to the last song, which does sound like it was put on for a joke and will probably have most people reaching for the skip function, but there is no sense of that in the other 9 songs before that. Jolie Holland's voice is always going to be something to either love or hate, with her yowling Southern pronunciation, the haunting old-time quality of music and the frequent inclusion of whistling on her songs, but I think if you do like her voice then you will love her music, which on this album involves alot more electric bluesy guitars and bass than any of her previous albums. On some tracks she is positively rocking out after some really beautifully sparse music in the past, but it all sounds genuine and her love of traditional country and blues music is clear and not just a jump onto the bandwagon. On one of the stand-out tracks, Fox In Its Hole, she veers very close to sounding like Cat Power from around her Moon Pix period. My other favourite is The Future, in which she tempts us to 'come on and wake up with me' and indeed its a song would be perfect for those hazy moments just after waking and deciding to stay in bed just that little bit longer - ah! If you like the Be Good Tanyas, Cat Power, Pieta Brown aswell as more classic country singers I think you would not be disappointed. Her live gigs are also very warm and unpretentious so try to catch her on tour for a real treat.
 A bit disappointing November 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Unfortunately this album is not a patch on her previous output. There's still some great moments though. The main problem here is that the production is often completely wrong, the drum sound is for the most part terrible trad-rock which clashes badly with her roots style and makes her sound like a Nashville wannabe at times. There are some poor songs on here too, Your Big Hands and Sweet Loving Man in particular sound like parody and Enjoy Yourself gets pretty annoying after one listen.
There are also a few moments where she regains the form of Springtime Can Kill You and Escondida. Fox In It's Hole is an atmospheric standout and Future is a poignant analysis of the hopes and dreams of a relationship. Her version of Love Henry is also fantastic and is almost up there with John Jacob Niles.
On the whole though the album lacks substance, the production is too slick and it feels like Jolie (willingly or otherwise) is playing the corporate game a little too much. She can be so much better.
Mixed emotions... November 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
For those who don't know her, you might put Jolie Holland somewhere inside a triangle marked out by Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits and Karen Dalton.
She writes consciously poetic, freshly aphoristic lyrics ("Everything minus one is everything"); enjoys twisting odd sounds out of (mostly country) instruments; and sings in an almost parodic southern voice that is both awkwardly naive yet breathtaking in its harmonic intelligence.
Her first album, 'Catalpa', was famously a demo tape complete with coughs and pauses. 'The Living and the Dead' also includes some swallowed vocals and concludes with a version of Carl Sigman's 1949 song "Enjoy Yourself (it's later than you think)" where Holland burst repeatedly into laughter. Maybe because she's amused at the process of double tracking, which she does here for the first time. But while the 'honest' flaws on 'Catalpa' were affecting, on this her fourth album they are disquieting.
Holland's comparative success has given her access to lauded musicians (M. Ward, Marc Ribot); but as she increasingly transcends into the music industry (and what else can she do?) it stretches the integrity that made her earlier albums so compelling. Keeping mistakes on a recording is no way to sustain it. It's even patronising.
While Holland's earlier work could misfire you always felt the experiment had been worth it. Here there are a few tracks - such as the clumsy "You painted yourself in" - that you feel were written to meet a contractual timetable. Wrongly or rightly this makes the emotionalism of songs like "Corrido por buddy" (about a friend of a friend who died of drugs) seem suspiciously forced. The title track IS addictive though; while "Fox in its Hole" is an absolute stand-out.
Holland could yet be one of the most important singer/songwriters of her generation; but 'The living and the dead' feels like a transitional album. Her fans will buy it on a reflex. First-timers might do better to try 'Escondida' or 'Springtime can Kill You'. It's more than worth it.
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