• West of Memphis: Voices for Justice (Sony Legacy) – What’s different about this richly packed compilation, the best of various benefit discs over the past dozen years that have aided the fight on behalf of the wrongly incarcerated West Memphis Three, is personal attention to detail.
Back in 2000, when Steve Earle, Tom Waits, Joe Strummer and others lent tracks to a similar set, everyone involved certainly seemed inspired by what was revealing itself to be a grave and prejudicial miscarriage of justice – three teenagers made into scapegoats for the murder of three younger boys. They were sentenced to life or worse in 1994 but finally released in August 2011 via a rarely used plea deal that doesn’t entirely exonerate them, nor permit them to sue the state for malfeasance.
Yet few of the artists on that earlier album played like they knew the convicted as anything more than character sketches colored by punk, metal, anti-authoritarianism and a dash of the occult.
That level of intimacy has risen considerably. In the decade since they became a cause célèbre, the WM3 (and death-row survivor Damien Echols in particular) have gained a number of famous champions, chief among them Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, Natalie Maines and Johnny Depp.
All of them turn up on this disc, the soundtrack to a comprehensive new Peter Jackson-produced documentary that recapitulates the stunning discoveries of Berlinger & Sinofsky’s three Paradise Lost films for HBO. Yet the compassion in their performances has been greatly heightened; despite the Three’s release, these staunch defenders still play as if their lives hang in the balance.
Compare Vedder’s previous cut, a fine but not especially meaningful rip through X’s “Poor Girl” while fronting Supersuckers, to his new contribution, the delicate “Satellite.” One of the Pearl Jam vocalist’s most touching solo ukulele pieces, with a chorus lifted by the same spiritual yearning you get from George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, the piece was penned for Echols’ eventual wife Lorri as part of a collection Vedder recorded for the couple, voicing their patient devotion while waiting on appeal after appeal.
It’s such a perfectly sculpted portrait of jailhouse longing that, private trove though the whole EV assortment must be, I wish the Echolses would have convinced him to include all of it as a bonus disc, or at least tacked on an extra helping. What bookends that song instead is a must-hear first half largely comprising heartfelt, fitting covers worth hearing, followed by a less-compelling final half that too often portents more than it delivers.
Bill Carter’s two tunes, for instance, “Anything Made of Paper” and the lengthier “Road to Nowhere,” are steeped in rich details that nonetheless bog down an already slow flow. Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells” (a memorable hymn from 1988′s Oh Mercy) suits the moment but doesn’t add much resonance. The bits of score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are effectively haunting but also random and scrambled. And Patti Smith’s parting “Wing,” while riveting and emotionally on-the-money, unfortunately suffers from a poor live recording.
On the other hand, Maines’ rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Mother” (a great turn from a powerful voice rarely heard since the last Dixie Chicks album in 2006) is a small revelation, soulfully sung and deftly embodying a blend of comfort and paranoia. Depp’s darkened, quasi-industrial translation of Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man” (a chant Echols latched onto like an anthem) and full-blast remakes of David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie” and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” by Camp Freddy and Marilyn Manson, respectively, add a proper dose of gloom.
Then there are two dire letters from Echols, one to Rollins, another to Depp, both chillingly read by their recipients. And then there’s Lucinda Williams, whose bruised, half-crazed rethinking of “Joy” says everything.
Grade: B+
Recently:
Album review: Eddie Vedder, Natalie Maines, more contribute gems to ‘West of Memphis’ soundtrack is a post from: Soundcheck