Description
Outpost of the Counter-Culture is the fourth full-length studio album by the American singer and songwriter Jan Krist, released on Silent Planet Records in 2001. The album was produced by Jan Krist, Alan Finkbeiner, and Kenny Meeks.
Silent Planet Records released what was largely a compilation, Love Big, Us Small, in 1999 and two years later Outpost Of The Counter-Culture on which Jan Krist stretches out stylistically performing a cover of the Gershwin classic “Someone To Watch Over Me” and a jazz-influenced song called “Waiting For The Cosmic Shoe To Drop”. The title track is built on a clever play on words, decrying how materialism (a culture defined by merchandise counters of department stores) dulls the senses to human suffering. The album was named the Best Acoustic CD of 2002 at the Detroit Music Awards.
On three studio albums, and one generous anthology before this, her full-length debut for the amazingly smart Silent Planet label (home to Terry Taylor and Aaron Sprinkle, among others), Jan Krist used her penetrating and poignant lyrics, her elegant music, and, especially, her gorgeously evocative yet plain-spoken vocals to establish an astonishing body of work. The best comparison is to Joni Mitchell, someone who can take a traditional form – singer/songwriter acoustic-based folk-rock – and simultaneously make it more artful and personal than all other contenders. That is no hyperbole – there is something paradoxically transcendent and practical about the way Krist writes and sings her songs of mercy (our need for it, our need to share it). Outposts of the Counter-Culture is a softer-sounding affair than her stark debut (Decapitated Society, although it continues that album’s tradition of social observation in the title track and «Try Anyway»), or other two original albums. Her deliciously warm voice has sank into the more laid-back material here with casual joy, yet the album still experiments musically, going from the fun jazzbo torch of «Someone To Watch Over Me» to the funky sci-fi avant-pop of «Parallel Universe», with one of her best six-string anthems sandwiched between («Try Anyway»). The songs themselves go from either being truly touching or very funny. [Chris Estey, HM Magazine, Jan/Feb 2002]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/outpost-of-the-counterculture/301694491)
CD tracklist:
01. Outpost Of The Counter Culture (Hometown) – 5:52
02. All I Can Change – 4:20
03. My Love (My Heart Knows) – 4:11
04. Good Enough – 4:57
05. Extraordinary – 3:37
06. Bent And Broken Reeds – 4:11
07. Thank You – 3:59
08. Waiting For The Cosmic Shoe To Fall – 5:13
09. Someone To Watch Over Me – 5:08
10. Try Anyway – 4:52
11. Parallel Universe – 8:01
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