![]() ![]() It finds the band undiminished, their mix of sounds, voices and personalities blending in a pop-wise classic-rock variation that feels friendly and inviting. The eponymous release was recorded at High/Low Studios in Crosstown and unites all of the principal players from Snowglobe’s primary lineup: Co-bandleaders Brad Postlethwaite and Tim Regan, drummer/singer Jeff Hulett, guitarist/singer Luke White, bassist Brandon Robertson and trumpet player Nahshon Benford. ![]() One of the more celebrated - at least among locals - Memphis indie-rock bands of the early and mid-2000s, Snowglobe returns this summer with its first new album since 2010. This means either his early Sun sessions with Sam Phillips or his late 1960s American sessions with Chips Moman.The music collected on “Way Down In The Jungle Room” isn’t commensurate with those achievements, but it helps fill in the portrait of Elvis as a Memphis music-maker. But many - myself generally included - think his greatest, deepest music was recorded in Memphis. There’s the shag-carpet boogie of “Way Down.” A relaxed reading of the Johnny Ace R&B classic “Pledging My Love.” A fun take on the future country hit “For the Heart.” And the thoroughly modern “Moody Blue,” which pointed toward a future on the charts.Įlvis obviously had watershed pop hits recorded in Nashville, New York or Los Angeles. But when he brings a lighter touch to bear on the material, it charms. Similarly the standard “Danny Boy” and Neil Sedaka’s “Solitaire” tend toward the schlock and mawkishness some find inseparable from the Big E. But much of it is good and worthy of a corner of his canon.Įlvis was as big a singer as George Jones, but the gravity he brings to “She Still Thinks I Care” lacks the same commitment. (The second disc are the kind of excess alternate takes that only completists and scholars really need in their lives.)Įlvis was near the end and well past his prime during these sessions, so this is uneven, and even the best of it falls short of greatness. The better half of the two-disc “Way Down In The Jungle Room” takes the six songs from “Moody Blue” that were recorded at Graceland’s most famous hangout spot and pairs them with the entirety of the 10-song 1976 “From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee,” all of which had been recorded there during the same sessions. I have childhood memories of the blue vinyl of 1977’s “Moody Blue,” Elvis’ final studio album, but it’s no classic, and the configuration of it and most proper Elvis albums was fairly slapdash. But this year’s primary Elvis Presley release (every year now has one) is less scam than rescue effort. I’m prone to calling foul on repackaging of music from studio albums into different configurations. ![]()
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