My ratiing: *****
Simple Things
Group: Zero 7
Genre/s: Acid jazz, lounge, blues, electronica.
Label: Palm Pictures (Audio)
Released: 2001
One of the few good things about aging is you begin to receive recommendations for music and movies from your nephews, nieces, and other young people. Typically, this turns out to be material that I would have never come across by myself just because my contemporaries are plugged into very different things. Zero 7's debut album Simple Things is a great example of what I mean. It was recommended to me by my very cool niece who lives and works in NYC. None of my friends have heard this album or even heard of this group. The first time I listened to this album I thought of it as interesting rock music. The second time I listened to this album I enjoyed it too but I remember it as a blues album. The next time I listened to it we were driving somewhere long distance and I had the late-night shift. I put it on at a low volume in the car. It just blew me away. The lyrics are superb, the vocals (Mozez, Sia Furler, Sophie Barker) are gorgeous. Mozez's voice reminds me of Roland Gift's (Fine Young Cannibals), Sia Furler's voice is like Chrissie Hynde's (The Pretenders) but with just a little hint of Janis Joplin in it, while Sophie Barker's is more conventional but beautiful.
The best feature, though, of Zero 7's music is the electronica. The multi-layered melodies are lush, fully developed and well thought out. I love electronic music and these guys blend their electronic
keyboards with the percussion and the vocals beautifully. Of course there are a number of tracks that are purely instrumental and these are the tracks that blew me away on my long distance drive (listen to Polaris in the dark to experience what I mean). Maybe the most unusual aspect of the album is the number of genres that it spans. I saw somewhere that Zero 7's music is classified as acid jazz. The term "acid jazz" evokes images of dark, smoky jazz clubs with people on
acid listening to jazz (well, at least to me). But if this is mainstream acid jazz I'm blown away by it. I don't think this is mainstream acid jazz...surely mainstream acid jazz doesn't have this stylistic quality to it with the blues-like singing, the electronica, and the laid-backness of a couple of the numbers. Anyway, what does it matter? Enjoy the music.
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