MUSIC BENEFITING CAUSES AND LISTENERS
Review by Al Kaufman
New Arrivals Volume 2
Various Artists
MPress Records
Rachael Sage is a marvelous singer/songwriter with true pop sensibilities. With NEW ARRIVALS VOLUME 2 she demonstrates, as she did with VOLUME 1, that her ear for pure pop enjoyment is as strong as her pen. Often benefit albums are spotty affairs. People stick a throwaway song on there because they want to be part of the project, but not enough to actually give up a good song that may earn them money. Listeners buy the CD to support the cause, hoping one or two of the tracks will make it at least worth a few listens.
Here, Sage has done the impossible. She brought together a bunch of unjustifiably unknown artists who donated their best stuff. In this case, everyone wins. Unknowns get some exposure, Artists Against Hunger and Poverty (who receive 100% of the proceeds) gets some money and exposure, and the listener is rewarded with some of the best pop not played on the radio. There is not one clunker on this 18-song gem. Kristy Kruger’s mysterious “Dark Stranger,” Trina Hamlin’s “Living On Love” (with its rousing “say hallelujah” chorus), and Rebekah Jordan’s jazzy “Lonely Life” are particular standouts. Chris Barron, the former scruffy-haired front man of the Spin Doctors, offers up a beautiful “Can’t Kick the Habit,” while Panchos Lament’s “Louisiana Holiday” sounds like a triple A radio staple.
Although a few other guys on here are guilty of navel-gazing, even they are smart enough to wrap their laments around a melody that makes the whole affair palpable. Sage is smart enough to ensure that her “Lonely Streets,” which should be the soundtrack for a film noir, is the best song on here, but any triple A radio programmer would do his listeners a great service by just playing this disc in its entirety, over and over again.
Various Artists
Voices & Faces
The CD cover is full of words, beginning with, “By the time you finish listening to this CD, 30 people will be sexually assaulted or raped.” Kind of puts you in a bummer of a mood before even hitting play. But then chanteuse Neko Case envelops you with her beautiful “I Wish I was the Moon,” and all depression is forgotten. In fact, the only song on the CD blatantly dealing with sexual violence is Michelle Shocked’s closer, “Evacuation Route,” about a woman getting her kids together late at night to leave her abusive husband. At that point, you have already listened to 16 of the best songs in the adult alternative genre and are ready for the reality slap.
David Garza’s “Outloud” sounds like Nick Drake in a slightly upbeat mood. Case’s New Pornographers offer up the poppy “When I was a Baby,” and Case’s musical soul sister, Kelly Hogan, is her usual smoky and sexy self on “Quiet Drink.” Cowgirl Sally Timms wonderfully channels PJ Harvey in her rendition of Freakwater’s “Cloak of Frogs,” and Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter twang it up nicely on “Don’t Let Me Go.” But it’s the lesser known Martha Berner who manages to score the best track on the disc. “A Town Called Happiness” may conjure up images of Bob Dylan with its freewheeling harmonica and clever lyrics, but it has a very now feel. As with everything else on here, it is intelligent pop rich in melody. With proceeds going to victims of sexual abuse, this is great music for a great cause. 
