Rating: 3/5
Review:
A rather ordinary period piece
This is an album recorded by Elise Weinberg in 1969 but
never released. Weinberg was a part of
the Laurel Canyon scene, which shows strongly here – there is a mix of the
wistful with just her and her acoustic picking to the fairly rocky in band
numbers like City Of the Angels, with shades in between. Elise Weinberg has a fine, husky voice which
put me strongly in mind of Melanie Safka (I am showing my age here, I know),
there are some notable guest artists – including Neil Young contributing lead
guitar to Houses – and it's all decently produced.
I think I'd have liked this album a lot in 1969. It went with the mood of the time, it has
some decent stuff on it and as a 15-year-old would-be peacenik I searched out a
lot of this stuff, some of which has endured and a lot of which hasn't. I don't really think this has. It certainly deserves to see the light of
day, but I have to say that the material overall isn't that great, the guitar
work is perfectly nice but pretty ordinary and after a couple of listens I've
heard enough for now. I'll probably go
back to it a few times, but more as an interesting historical record of a time
than for real enjoyment of the music.
The lyrics feel a bit limp these days and musically there's nothing
especially interesting here.
There's nothing actually wrong with Greasepaint Smile; it's
a perfectly competent album which reflects its time, but I think it belongs in
that time and it's much more of an interesting period piece than something to
be played repeatedly. I'd suggest
finding some samples and seeing what you think; you may like this far more than
I do, but personally I can only give it a rather lukewarm recommendation.
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