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Amos Lee
Supply and Demand
(Blue Note)
First Appeared in The Music Box, October 2006, Volume 13, #10
Written by John Metzger
With Amos Lee, it’s the voice that matters most. A golden, fluid instrument,
it effortlessly glides among blues, soul, and gospel styles while conveying a
wealth of emotion with each uttered phrase. It served him well on his
self-titled debut, and it’s certainly the highpoint of his follow-up Supply
and Demand. He delivers Careless, for example, with a sense of
heavyhearted weariness, while both the socially conscious Sympathize and
the politically minded Freedom exude an air of frustration with the
status quo. Yet, there’s a light that shines from within Lee’s articulations,
and it serves to brighten the darker undercurrents of his material by lending to
it the hope that everything will turn out all right in the end.
The problem, however, is that the minimalist arrangements that frame Lee’s
songs frequently feel too comfortable and inconsequential. On his debut, he,
more often than not, managed to rise above the tepid loveliness of the music by
tapping into the understated earthiness of Bill Withers’ work. Subtlety,
however, is a difficult thing to master. With Supply and Demand, Lee
takes an even safer approach by staying within a set of preordained boundaries,
and the result is that he comes across like a softer version of Ben Harper. Not
surprisingly, tunes like the radiant Shout Out Loud; the loose,
roots-rock of Freedom; the swinging, old-time blues of Sweet Pea;
and the buoyant title track fare best. Everywhere else on Supply and Demand,
Lee traffics in tastefully unassuming pleasantries that seem to be tailored
specifically to meet the undiscerning tastes of the Starbucks crowd. While that
strategy succeeded in transforming Norah Jones into a star, it’s likely to make
Lee a mere footnote. 
Supply and Demand is available from Amazon.com.
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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 © 2006 The Music Box
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