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| |
| Artist : Jem |
| Album : Down To Earth-(Advance) |
| Bitrate : VBR kbps |
| |
+-------------------------------[Release Info]-------------------------------+
| |
| Label : ATO Records |
| Year : 2008 |
| Genre : Pop |
| Rip date : Sep-03-2008 |
| Store date : Sep-16-2008 |
| Size : 62,9 MB |
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+--------------------------------[Track List]--------------------------------+
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|Track Listing: |
| |
| 01 - Down To Earth 04:34 |
| 02 - Crazy 03:39 |
| 03 - I Want You To 03:39 |
| 04 - It's Amazing 03:58 |
| 05 - Keep On Walking 04:12 |
| 06 - You Will Make It feat. Vusi Mahlasela 06:12 |
| 07 - I Always Knew 03:10 |
| 08 - Got It Good 04:27 |
| 09 - Aciiid! 02:57 |
| 10 - How Would You Like It 04:02 |
| 11 - And So I Pray 02:42 |
| 12 - On Top Of The World 04:52 |
| |
| ───── |
| 48:24 min |
| |
+-------------------------------[Release Notes]------------------------------+
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| Enjoy this highly anticipated follow up... |
| |
| Before work had even begun, Jem knew what the title of the follow-up to |
| her acclaimed 2004 debut, Finally Woken, would be. "Even around the |
| making of the first album, I wanted to call this one Down To Earth," she |
| recalls. Although the title song incorporates the reflections of an |
| extraterrestrial, those three little words suit Jem and her aesthetic |
| for myriad other reasons. |
| |
| In the four years since Finally Woken dropped, Jem has spanned the |
| globe. Born in Wales, she now resides in Los Angeles. On the same day |
| that a family friend sends a text about hearing Jem's music in a cafΘ in |
| China, an e-mail arrives from a fan listening to her in Bahrain. |
| Taste-maker Nic Harcourt, Music Director of KCRW 89.9 FM Los Angeles, |
| was one of her earliest supporters. And thanks to exposure via TV shows |
| including The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, CSI Miami and |
| Six Feet Under, literally millions of listeners worldwide have heard her |
| music.s |
| |
| Has all this gone to her head? Hardly. Like that title, Down To Earth, |
| also implies, Jem remains grounded. Perhaps that has something to do |
| with her early experiences behind-the-scenes, working with electronic |
| acts such as Adam Freeland and Fatboy Slim, co-writing the Madonna |
| single "Nothing Fails" with producer Guy Sigsworth (Bj÷rk, Alanis |
| Morissette). But mostly, it stems from the fact that her prime |
| motivation remains the joy of writing, recording, and performing music. |
| Everything else is gravy. |
| |
| Down To Earth was recorded in Detroit and Los Angeles, with production |
| and writing duties shared with cohorts both old and new. In the Motor |
| City, she worked with Jeff Bass, one of the two brothers credited with |
| discovering Eminem. Not that either party was preoccupied with crafting |
| straight-up hip-hop tracks. "Jeff actually loves making all types of |
| music, which is awesome, we really clicked." Los Angeles found her in |
| the studio with Lester Mendez. His impressive rΘsumΘ includes Shakira, |
| Santana, and Nelly Furtado, but it was his arrangements for The Love |
| Album by Chris de Burgh, one of her mother's favorites, that clinched |
| it. ("It was a sign," she chuckles. "I thought, I have to meet this |
| man!")s |
| |
| On three other selections, she joined forces with Mike Bradford, who has |
| played bass with Kid Rock, and counts Uncle Kracker and Deep Purple |
| among his production credits. "He's an old friend, and he has a great |
| musical sensibility, so I thought it would be great to do some tracks |
| with him." Finally, to keep things good and lively, the leading expert |
| in the field of smart dance-pop was enlisted for the club cut "Aciiid!": |
| Greg Kurstin (Kylie Minogue, Beck, The Bird And The Bee) "I was thinking |
| along the lines of 'Edge 1' for any hardcore fans still out there (1991 |
| UK dance movement led by the Prodigy, preceded drum-n-bass) and Greg's |
| electronic skills were perfect." |
| |
| Down To Earth reflects the far-ranging influences of the |
| singer-songwriter. The sensuous "I Want You Toà" kicks off with |
| rapid-fire Spanish chatter. Produced by Mendez, this tempestuous, |
| Latin-flavored track was initially a collaboration earmarked for a solo |
| album by turntable whiz Cut Chemist (Ozomatli, Jurassic 5). "My first |
| version of that song was so sexy, it was ridiculous," laughs Jem. "We |
| really had to reel it in." The inspiration, she admits, was a bit |
| salacious, but not autobiographical. "I just had this vision of two |
| people meeting on the dance floor, and basically wanting to ravish each |
| other right there." In the end, the co-creators decided that, to |
| paraphrase pop psychology, Jem needed to own these feelings herself. "We |
| decided to put it on my album instead." |
| |
| At the other end of the spectrum, the contemplative "And So I Pray" |
| interpolates a sample of "A Summer Long Since Past," a bucolic 1983 |
| piece by British cult artist Virginia Astley. Co-writer Kevin Beber |
| (electronic producer/artist who was signed to the breakbeat label she |
| used to run out of Brighton) plucked the sample from a CD his mother |
| listened to whilst gardening. Her response was immediate. "I had never |
| heard of [Astley], but the song was so beautiful, it just hit my heart." |
| |
| Such experimentation continued throughout the making of Down To Earth. |
| Which is how the hip-shaking "Crazy" came to feature one of the album's |
| more surprising timbres: "Yes, that is a funky banjo," she laughs. "Part |
| of what I love about music is, because I'm not trained in a certain way, |
| I don't have worries about can you do this or that," she admits. "I just |
| go for sounds." Most elements, such as the Brazilian percussion on "Down |
| To Earth," evolved spontaneously, while others simply started life on a |
| rough mix and never went away. Through it all, an unerring sense of |
| structural minimalism ensures the arrangements never feel busy or |
| cluttered. |
| |
| Jem had no preconceived notions for Down To Earth, save for a decision |
| to limit the ballads to a few choice specimens ("You Will Make It," |
| written with her brother Justin - aka the artist Glass Pear - who |
| collaborates on three songs on the album, is a song about loss and 9/11, |
| featuring the soaring vocals of Vusi Mahlasela). Hence, when it came |
| time to spice up "Aciiid!," she did not shy away from the nagging voice |
| in her head suggesting singing inàJapanese. A colleague sent around two |
| Japanese-American music fans to help translate the lyric and tutor Jem |
| in phonetic pronunciation. "It was just about having a different texture |
| and flavor on the chorus," she explains. "Why not? I remember listening |
| to French hip-hop, and having no idea what they were saying, but really |
| loving the melody and the tracks." |
| |
| One last thought on that album title: No matter how rapturous a |
| reception she receives, Jem shows no interest in the fame game. "Ever |
| since watching There Will Be Blood, I've been thinking about Daniel Day |
| Lewis. He's such a wonderful reference. He does his own thing, comes out |
| of the woodwork, is absolutely incredibleà" and then discretely steps |
| out of the public eye. Point taken. Down To Earth will surely push Jem |
| even further into the stratosphere, but she intends to remain securely |
| rooted on terra firma. |
| |
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