bob_tomato's Full Review: Fabric of Life by The Nylons
Do I want them now like I did back then? I care about The Nylons but I can do without them, especially if they can no longer manage to record anything better than their album Fabric of Life. Most of the songs on the album are covers, and while they may sound good on the surface, the fabric of life within each song seems to be unraveling the more and more I listen to this recording…
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Hand to Mouth
Maybe it's not fair to complain about this album; after all, most a cappella groups do a lot of cover songs, and The Nylons are anything but slouches in this department. This is one of the groups that helped bring about the birth of the modern vocal style, complex and demanding musically for the singers, but so much fun to listen to as a fan. The new a cappella is so much more than barbershop quartet, fifties doo-wop or choral works; it is about jazz chords, rhythmic backing tones mixed with a beat-box (human or mechanical, as in the case of The Nylons early efforts), all supporting a solo, duet or other lead vocal combination. The new a cappella takes the concept of cover songs as interpreted by "regular" bands, (that is, to play the song in the style most common to the band and make it sound like one of their own songs most often) and instead, opens the song in a fresh, fun new way to the listener. This works so well because the listener has all the tools necessary to reproduce everything he's seen on stage – he believes "Hey! I can do this too!" and so he tries it in the shower, in his living room, while driving his car, at his desk at work (each of these performance venues have been tried and tested by yours truly).
A cappella arrangements are ALWAYS about the voice - the sound and style of an instrumental band can't be applied. The a cappella group has to differentiate themselves with their on stage personas and performances, using their arrangement skills to create a nifty sound, but also using choreography, facial expressions and charisma to win over the audience. (Best example I've ever witnessed in concert: The UC Men's Octet performing their old-timey barbershop-style arrangement of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back, complete with MTV-style booty shaking. Priceless.)
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…well, I gotta have faith
The Nylons first few albums were all about the whole performance, raw and passionate, reflecting the sound of the group's live concerts ( Amy and I saw them at the Orpheum in San Francisco once – great show!). Over time, their recorded sound has gotten more and more polished, further and further away from the live sound that they do still create. To me, their live energy has seemingly been left on the stage, never to enter the studio again.
Now, many might wonder why an improving polished sound in the studio can be a negative for me – well, you have to understand how I feel about live performances in relation to an artist's talent and discography. I've always thought that the better an artist sounds live, with no effects and tricks to rely upon, the more skilled the artist is musically, and it should translate to a more real performance in the studio. I happen to think that Sting's first few albums demonstrate this very well; for example, his first live shows as a solo artist, playing with jazz greats Branford Marsalis, Omar Hakim and Darryl Jones, translated to sonic gold in his debut album The Dream of the Blue Turtles . On the opposite end of the Sting spectrum, his more recent albums have been progressively more polished, and the songs from these albums just don't work as well in concert when played "as is". It's only when Sting breaks these songs down and begins to tinker with the arrangement and style live that these songs come alive for me.
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One More Try
And so we come back to The Nylons – vocal pioneers, fabulous performers, terrific singers, but on Fabric of Life? Boring. These songs might work better in concert – the performance itself has a lot to do with the energy of an a cappella song – but do they really need to sound so sterile as on this album? There are an awful lot of nice harmonies to be heard here, and a lot of good solo turns by each of the singers, but where has the soul of the group gone? The vocal talent hasn't diminished, the arrangements are still good, but these songs just don't pop for me like the early material. For whatever reason, these Nylons seem stretched out…
Other cover song selections are interesting, covering some songs that are a little more contemporary than the rest of their extensive repertoire, including Donald Fagen's Ruby Baby (a classic cover in itself of a Lieber & Stoller tune originally performed by The Drifters) and Hall and Oates' I Can't Go For That. Each of these arrangements are well-crafted, leaving some of the familiar hooks and rhythms from the original songs in place but changed enough to make them identifiable Nylon arrangements. The key is that they are just too smooth. They are executed well, but in a Vegas sort of way – I mean, I enjoyed the Rick Springfield concert I attended back in 1985, but do I want to hear those songs twenty years later and after he's played them in his Vegas show 300 days a year?
The problem is that there's no edge, no danger, no passion in these sorts of songs anymore. They might sound good on the surface, and the skill necessary to produce them is undeniably high, but those are the only points I can award - I just don't care about these studio tracks, because they just don't move me. Taking a song like Ai No Corrida and forcing it into Madonna's Vogue outfit just doesn't work, and the attempt is as equally transparent as that blouse. There are also some original tracks on this album, but they don't help The Nylons cause either. I've always been on the fence about their original songs, and these aren't any better than anything else I've heard by the band.
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aye ee aye ee aye ee aye-aye
You should have noticed by now that The Nylons' cover of George Michael's Monkey left the biggest impression on me. It's a great idea, a bold and daring move to try to crank out a cover of a classic eighties dance hit – so, why can't they do it? Why can't they set this monkey free?
I'll tell you why – there's no passion in this version of the song. There's no frustration, no yelling, no pleading and begging. Instead, what you have here is a group of men singing their own personal tribute to the idea of George Michael and his monster hit, and his monster tush that he shook for all it was worth (at least, back when he was chained to his Contract With The Corporation). The Nylons sing someone else's song; they don't sing the song in the manner in which it was intended, and so it loses all its impact, all its flavor, turning it into just another vocal jazzercise session.
As sung by The Nylons, the song isn't about the monkey on the back and how to finally get rid of it; it's more about trying to make the monkey dance in place – too bad, even the monkey is bored…cover songs work so much better when sung as if they actually mean something to that artist.
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…just do it again
One of the most telling things about Fabric of Life is the Really Big Gimmick used in this recording. Eight premier human beat-box artists from within the a cappella industry were brought in to do the percussive duties, a task that The Nylons usually relegate to a drum machine. Perhaps seeing the move within the industry from mechanical to human beat-box begin to pass them by, The Nylons decided to try their hand at it. But the problem is, The Nylons don't have a defined human beat-box sound to call their own, and so all the new and interesting sounds that do occur on Fabric of Life are exclusively in the guest artist performances, never to leave their permanent mark on The Nylons.
You can't just slow down Let It Be as The Nylons have done here, and hope that the attempt at turning it into an R&B jam will work. If you want to break it down into something new, you've gotta dissect it to find the parts that provide the foundation and then build on those, adding innovative touches and interesting, even daring vocal parts that will challenge the listener to think of the song in a new way. The first time you hear this arrangement of Let It Be, you'll think of every other R&B slow jam you've ever heard, instead of leaning forward expectantly thinking "wow, now this is something Lennon/McCartney never could have imagined…"
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…every man's got his patience, and here's where mine ends
I swear I won't tease you, won't tell you no lies – I like The Nylons, and Fabric of Life isn't truly awful, so big fans of the group will probably enjoy this album to an extent - but I can't take much more, guys, I'm losing control. Where is that raw, passionate band of singers who threw their all into Town Without Pity, Romance and Please? Where is the heartbreak of So Long, the romantic beauty of The Stars Are Ours? Where has the voice of soulful pleading gone? Where is the playful manic energy I once witnessed on stage? Am I being completely unfair? What has become of one of my favorite a cappella groups?
I must have been kissing a fool…
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The NylonsFabric of Life
Originally released in August, 1997
All song lyrics quoted are the copyrighted property of their owners
Track Listing
Ruby Baby / Ain't No Sunshine / I Can't Go For That / Nobody Knows / Comfort & Joy (I) / Let It Be / Monkey / Go With It / Comfort & Joy (II) / Back On Track / Ai No Corrida / Consider
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