David by Nellie McKay

January 29, 2005 | 5 Comments

The Artist: Nellie McKay
The Song: David
The Album: Get Away From Me
Released 2004
Recommended if you like: Joss Stone, Kate Bush, Nora Jones, Dorothy Parker, Ethel Merman

I kinda wanted to do something different this week. I’ve been on an kind of indie rock thing for the last few weeks, so let’s take it in another direction for a minute and go with something completely different.

This week’s artist, Nellie McKay, is most often classified as Jazz, and for the most part that’s accurate, but as with most of the music I enjoy, it’s not quite right all the time.

Nellie’s a young woman with a great voice, a lot of imagination and lots of musical talent. She’s also quite obviously a kook and it really shows through on Get Away From Me—on just about every song.

She’s been compared to Ethel Merman (and mentions her on the album), Diana Krall, Jem, and of course Nora Jones, but I don’t really see all of that. She reminds me of Kate Bush (a really young, cutesy Kate Bush) without sounding a damn thing like her. I don’t really know why, it’s an attitude and maybe it’s that quirkiness. Well that and I hear some Kate Bush in the “oo-weeee-aoo” on “Toto Dies.”

Get Away From Me is an amazingly listen-able album, regardless of you main musical preferences. There is enough variety, enough clever wordplay and enough humor on her for anyone and it’s all brought together by Nellie’s charming, yet somewhat off-putting brashness. She’s a sultry songstress, a protest singer, a total goof and a petulant little shit all at the same time. It’s fun to play on shuffle and see which Nellie comes out first.

I chose “David”, the first track on the album, as this week’s song because it’s got a bit of what I like best about her music—it’s catchy, fun and different.

Filed under: Song of The Week

Comments

1. Jim Renaud said:

I like Nelly McKay as well, but I like Regina Spektor even better. She was recently featured on NPR’s The Next Big Thing radio show.

She’s in the same vein as Nelly (not the St. Louis rapper).

Posted on January 31, 2005 12:00 PM | #

2. Scott said:

I discovered Nelly McKay last year when she performed the dog song on Letterman… went right out and bought her CD.

Great stuff… very different!

Posted on February 1, 2005 02:53 PM | #

3. Chris Hester said:

Well I just read the reviews from the Amazon link you used and one said this:

“If there’s ever an artist who’s looking to inherit Frank Zappa’s throne, McKay is it. Her voice is a wry, smartass talk-sing that literally flaunts its moments of pitchless amelodicism; her lyrics are offbeat muses, less narrative than bizarre internal monologue; and her arrangements are entirely in the wink-wink tradition of Zappa.”

Surely not!

I see also it is a double album! I checked out all the tracks via excerpts on the Amazon page. Not really my first choice of musical style, but I like the way she does what she does. David is great! I also find her very attractive on the cover, er I mean she’s got a great voice.

Posted on February 3, 2005 02:10 PM | #

4. Geir said:

Ah, this is excellent! (runs out and buys album) Thank you!

Posted on February 8, 2005 07:24 AM | #

5. matty said:

Baby watch your back is the only song that i have heard since Phish broke up that sounds like a Phish tune. All it needs is trey’s guitar mirroring nelly’s vocals and a sick solo leading to the bridge . as for the rest of the album, it is the only thing that i have been able to listen to since i got it.

Posted on August 19, 2005 01:51 PM | #