Monday 6 July 2009

Review - Buffy Sainte-Marie - Running For The Drum

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Running For The Drum

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6 out of 10

You could be forgiven for thinking that Buffy Sainte-Marie would be content to release quiet albums of pastoral cover-versions these days, what with her being blacklisted in the 1960s and covertly censored since. She could be forgiven for resting on such laurels as writing Up Where We Belong (Google it, you'll have probably seen the film), being feted by various, laudable academic institutions (including Sesame Street). But no. This woman still has something to say and, let's face it; the world isn't becoming any less crap.

So we have Running For The Drum, a mix of Native American chants, club grooves and AOR uneasy listening which shouldn't work at all but, on several occasions, does. No No Keshagesh leaps straight in with a pithy take on modernity - 'now it's all spyware, now it's all income tax'. Working For The Government continues the punch-groove. The down side is tracks like Too Much Is Never Enough or When I Had You - a respite from the political comment, certainly, but one which really should have been left on whichever episode of The Two Ronnies it sounds like it was recorded on. There's not too much of this cloying sentimentality but the initial rush of the opening tracks does peter out, which dilutes things somewhat. Still, it's a worthy effort which puts most contemporary skanky youths pretending to be pop stars to shame.

Listen: www.myspace.com/buffysaintemarie

Tracklist:
1. No No Keshagesh
2. Cho Cho Fire
3. Working For The Government
4. Little Wheels Spin And Spin
5. Too Much Is Never Enough
6. To The Ends of the World
7. When I Had You
8. I Bet My Heart On You
9. Blue Sunday
10. Easy Like The Snow Falls Down
11. America The Beautiful
12. Still This Love Goes On

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