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Otis Taylor
Double V
(Telarc)
First Appeared in The Music Box, July 2004, Volume 11, #7
Written by John Metzger
Perhaps the one thing that has kept Otis Taylor from reaching a wider
audience has been the darkness of both his lyrics and his music. His first few
forays were daunting song cycles that struck hard, never allowing the listener
to glimpse even the slightest ray of sunshine. Since shifting to the Telarc
label with last year’s Truth Is Not Fiction, however, Taylor has been
modifying his sound, if not his lyrics, in ways that have made his albums far
more accessible. Consequently, Please Come Home before It Rains, the
opening track from his fifth outing Double V, is positively jubilant in
comparison with his previous works. It’s still a sparsely constructed
arrangement, featuring guitar, mandolin, and bass — all of which are performed
by Taylor and his daughter Cassie — bubbling beneath the surface of his
bittersweet, emotive vocals, but the African groove he conjures feels far more
alive than the death knell that has tolled tirelessly throughout his earliest
efforts.
Yet, the biggest difference between Double V and Truth Is Not
Fiction is that Taylor has shed his recent preoccupation with rock ’n‘ roll
and returned to the droning, heady blues of John Lee Hooker. Eddie Turner, the
guitarist whose screeching lead on the latter album drew incontrovertible
comparisons to Jimi Hendrix, did not contribute to the latest project. Instead,
Taylor employed several cellists to lend a sometimes eerie, sometimes airy
ambience to the proceedings. Despite these changes, he doesn’t abandon the heavy
hitting topics that have become synonymous with his songwriting. Plastic
Spoon considers the plight of an elderly couple who can’t afford their
prescription medicines; 505 Train offers a haunting examination of
domestic abuse; and several tunes (Took Their Land, He Never Raced on
Sunday, Sounds of Attica, and Mandan Woman) view bigotry from
various moments in American history. In other words, although Taylor continues
to shift and change his approach from one album to the next, the stunning
intensity of his delivery is still very much intact, making Double V a
worthwhile, if sometimes difficult, endeavor to fully embrace. 
Double V is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2004 The Music Box
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