Peacock, Annette - The Perfect Release CD
SKU
39-CD-SUND-6351
“After her stunning, groundbreaking album X-Dreams received wildly enthusiastic critical reviews and attained nothing less than complete public indifference, composer, singer, songwriter, and pianist Annette Peacock was at an artistic crossroads. While she wasn't willing to compromise her musical vision, for financial reasons she needed to expand her view to include what she perceived to be the popular music of the time: Steely Dan, Rickie Lee Jones, et al. (Apparently her vision did not include the Clash's London Calling.)
In typical Peacock fashion, brash arrogance dictated the album's title, The Perfect Release. To be fair, although wildly ahead of its time, it nearly was perfect. Utilizing the talents of one band (the group she met when singing backing vocals on some Linda Lewis sessions) rather than a hearty gang of 20 studio musicians as she had on X-Dreams, Peacock constructed an album of seven extended tracks that were too rock- and pop-oriented for jazz radio programmers to handle and a rock and pop album that was farther to the left than Steely Dan's attempt at appropriating jazz -- this was jazz.
Needless to report: the album was a commercial flop, and is only being properly discovered here in the digital age. The Perfect Release stitches together the lounge jazz of Lower Manhattan, the Brazilian pop of Tom Jobim, Nara Leao, and Caetano Veloso, the slippery funk of War, and the shifty rock skullduggery of Joni Mitchell's LA studio period.
In all, if the record's not a masterpiece it is something close. The Perfect Release may not have given Peacock the commercial success she longed for at the time, but it is a record that stands the test of time very well, and is one she is able to be proud of as an artist to this day.”-Thom Jurek / AllMusic”
- LabelSundazed
- UPC090771635129