Recent press (Aug. 2003)
VIN SCELSA - WFUV:
Greta Gertler is from Australia, by way of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she has lived and worked for the past few years. Her debut album, "The Baby That Brought Bad Weather" (self released), is one of t [+]Recent press (Aug. 2003)
VIN SCELSA - WFUV:
Greta Gertler is from Australia, by way of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she has lived and worked for the past few years. Her debut album, "The Baby That Brought Bad Weather" (self released), is one of those hoped for revelations that all too infrequently emerge from the never-ending pile of new releases. From Kirsty MacColl-ish pop to blue jazz smoke-filled urban ballads of love and loss, Greta promises to be an exciting new fixture on the New York music scene.
THE NEW YORKER - Pop Notes:
Greta Gertler, an Australian expat who now lives in Brooklyn. She has a spacious voice and a welcome weakness for lushly orchestrated seventies-era singer-songwriter pop.
TIME OUT NEW YORK - Sara Marcus:
Greta Gertler is a classically trained composer who penned the 2000 hit "Blow Up the Pokies" for the Whitlams, a friend's band in her native Australia, before relocating to New York to try her luck as a writer of top-ten songs. The fateful switch from rarified art-music to populist
tunefulness was a wise one; Gertler's solo debut, The Baby That Brought Bad Weather, is an impeccably orchestrated album of buoyant '70s-style pop.
Thanks in part to coproducer Noah Simon, the influence of classic soul music suffuses this record, from the rich vibrato of Gertler's electric piano to the elaborate brass and string arrangements. The strongest tracks are jaunty and lilting, plumped up with horn sections and shuffling drums. The trumpet flourishes on "It's Getting Harder" sound as if they could have been on the Stevie Wonder fake-book circa "Sir Duke." The album's crown jewel, "Pocketful of Change," has a lopsided 5/4 rhythm anchored by crashing jazz drums; as strings wail and an accordion chuffs in the background, the song's verses would be right at home being performed by an avant-chamber ensemble, but the bridge is pure Sgt. Pepper, with a blues guitar solo that somehow fits right in.
Fans of The Baby's lush textures can take heart in the knowledge that at least a dozen of the album's 30-plus backup musicians - including a full rhythm section and the classical Carpentier String Quartet - will be joining Gertler onstage at this week's record release show."
HEADLINER MAGAZINE (RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL) - Sights and Sound
|
 |
Genre/Tags: 
Ringtones
Full Tracks
