Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 08/01/2006
Ollabelle's second album,
Riverside Battle Songs, arrives on the heels of 2004's self-titled debut, one of the more celebrated
Americana releases of the new millennium. That album combined classic
gospel material with
T-Bone Burnett's sparkling production and a fresh vocal approach featuring five gifted singers who could shine both individually and collectively. Where the debut album was skewed toward
traditional songs with a smattering of originals,
Riverside Battle Songs reverses the ratio. Nine of the 13 songs are
Ollabelle originals. The
traditional songs fare best here. Namesake
Ola Belle Reed's
"High on a Mountain" is given a spirited reading, while the familiar
spiritual "Down by the Riverside" is updated with
ambient touches that recall
Daniel Lanois' production work. The
Appalachian gospel song
"Gone Today" arrives via spine-tingling
a cappella singing, departs via a fiddle and Dobro hoedown, and is one of the album's highlights. The originals are more problematic. The mournful
"Everything Is Broken" is a starkly lovely
ballad, while
"Troubles of the World" offers an impressive and surprising
raga-tinged coda on what is otherwise a standard
gospel song. However, producer and multi-instrumentalist
Larry Campbell adds some too-familiar
alt-country pedal steel work on
"Heaven's Pearls" and
"Blue Northern Lights," songs that are certainly pretty, but which overstay their welcome. More disturbingly, the five members of
Ollabelle simply sound too polite and well-mannered for songs that are intended to convey
spiritual desperation and heavenly joy. It's a charge that could have been leveled at the debut album, but the universally strong material offset the lack of
funk and fire. But
Riverside Battle Songs, with slightly weaker material, is
The Gospel According to NPR and PBS, and as such it will appeal mostly to fans who like their fire and brimstone diluted with a strong dose of slick professionalism and urbane refinement. Undeniably well crafted and well sung, and occasionally moving,
Riverside Battle Songs is nevertheless something of a disappointment.
~Andy Whitman, All Music Guide
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