Shivaree


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I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head , 7/10
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Shivaree is mainly Ambrosia Parsley's vehicle to deliver in a hoarse register halfway between Stevie Nicks and the Cardigans. The effectiveness of her songs owe a lot to the arrangements of her two partners, veteran session-men Duke McVinnie on guitar and Danny McGough on keyboards. They populate the music with a little zoo of quirky noises, keyboard drones and bass hooks, coupled with the least predictable rhtyhm machines on record. I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In This Dump (Capitol, 2000) boasts the splendid multi-colored fusion of Goodnight Moon, an upbeat atmospheric shuffle with girlish vocals and gloomy melody that sounds as if Britney Spears had suddenly morphed into Bilie Holliday and was fronting the Doors, and the tender, heart-wrenching Idiot Waltz, whose piano and guitar resonate like rings in a pond.
Parsley's singing and the duo's backing shine on existential late-hour ballads that draw from a broad range of genres: the smoky, noir, trip-hopping country of Bossa Nova, the suspenseful spiritual ballad Arlington Girl, that has the solemn martial tempo of a requiem and the soft caressing warmth of Macy Gray, or the sleepy I Don't Care, that sounds like the Cowboy Junkies augmented with Hawaian guitar and jazz trombone.
Doses of funk and soul enhance the nonchalant storytelling of Daring Lousy Guy and propel the feverish dance of Pimp.
Parsley impersonations include Juliana Hatfield in the carefree meditation of Oh No, Tom Waits in the drunken reminescence of Lunch Everything has been carefully sprayed with demented instrumental breaks and disco/hip hop beats.

Goodnight Moon became a hit when included in two film soundtracks.

The band still released the EP Corrupt and Immoral Transmissions (2000) , the album Rough Dreams (Odeon, 2002), the EP Breach (2004), the album Who's Got Trouble? (Odeon, 2005), and a collection of covers, Tainted Love: Mating Calls and Fight Songs (2007).

Parsley debuted solo on Weeping Cherry (Fargo, 2013).

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