[.ca] Keep on Doing

Oh my goodness... I'm at a loss of (nice) things to say:
I heard their Hallelujah Chorus track on a compilation album, and was immediately, ahem, displeased. Shrill voices, mangled phrasing, unoriginal voicings... oh my, poor Handel! Attempting to give this group the benefit of the doubt, I listened to several other tracks of their Keep on Doing album, and alas, felt just as uncomfortable with their singing as when I began. I know I'm likely to get slammed here, and this is actually one of the very few negative reviews I've written on Amazon.com, but wow, I fail to see any appeal in this group. Okay, so this review is weak on specifics? Let me offer some more focused criticisms of their opening track: 1) When they hit a unison note, they fail to adjust their individual volumes. 2) They seem like they're singing, nay, shrieking through their throats and noses rather than supporting their voices from their gut. 3) They seem incapable of appropriately carrying over phrases, instead breathing just any ol' random place. 4) Their pitch 'accuracy' is questionable, to put it kindly. Ack!

Keep on Doing by the Roches:
This is a great album. If the only Roches album you know is the first one (the Roches), you might be initially disappointed with this one, since the "the Roches" is such an incredible album. But when you start listening to this, you realize bit by bit that the songwriting is still great here. The harmonies and the arrangements are wonderful. I think my favorite tune is actually not written by them, " On the Road to Fairfax County". But they do an amazing job with the arrangement and the performance. If you don't fall in love with Maggie Roche, you may not be listening hard enough.

Fairfax County will break your heart:
On its own, The Road to Fairfax County is worth the price of admission. And the vocals and lyrics elsewhere on the album sparkle and shimmer. On my list of Roches CD's, Keep on Doing is first equal along with We Three Kings (which also rates as my favourite Christmas CD, from any artist).

Eclectic and Difficult Album:
...even for a die-hard Roches fan. There is breathtaking beauty here ("Losing True"), drama ("Fairfax County"), fun ("Want Not"), quirks ("Largest Elizabeth"), pain ("Scorpion") and solid crafting and harmony ("I Fell in Love"). There is also some downright filler, rare for a Roches album. The touted "Hallelujah Chorus" is probably a crowd-pleaser from their early shows, and gets too much attention. "Maestro" wanders around aimlessly, "Sex is for Children" should have been left on the cutting room floor, and "Keep on Doing" would have been a great song with only a little more attention given to it. My major irk with the whole project, for 20+ years running, is the thoughtless, off-handed Fripp guitar work. He was artsy-hot then, and had done great work in different settings, true. But, speaking as a fellow guitarist, I can tell when someone is just playing the first thing that comes to mind, and keeping the first take for sheer ego's sake. Still, I'm hoping the sisters will include some of these songs for that live reunion DVD I'm visualizing them making... Love, Mark M.

Childlike, quirky folk never bettered by its makers:
"Keep On Doing", a reunion with Robert Fripp, showed the Roches perfecting to a degree they would never do later the approach of their first two albums. Whilst all the childlike naïvette and understated simplicity of such highlights as "The Death Of Suzzy Roche" from those two albums remains, on "Keep On Doing" the sisters combine it with a degree of infectious energy they would never again equal. The beautiful harmonies of the opener "The Hallelujah Chorus" are instantly memorable and remind one of a more fiery, stripped-down version of Steeleye Span's "Gaudete", whilst the beautiful "Losing True" and "The Scorpion Lament" wreak with tenderness and feeling, as does the funny yet serious "The Largest Elizabeth In The World", which seems to be a warning against trying to take power for oneself. "Sex Is For Children" was almost funky in its use of electronics, but the way in which the Roches make every note memorable is indeed surprising. The accessible, hooky "I Fell In Love" showed the band developing its quirky harmonies onto deeply romantic themes, but the intense "Want Not Want Not" with its naïve yet remarkably intense, moody, even ecstatic power, is the real stunner here. A motto of indifference, yes, but "Want Not Want Not" seemingly existed in its own time amidst the sisters' remarkably resonant shrieks against the consumerist manifesto of the modern age. The ringing piano adds more than a contrast of tone to the sisters' guitars, as does the impassioned plea "I wish there was a true love" in the middle of the song. The last album the Roches would record for Warners, its commercial failure (reaching only #183 on Billboard) was hardly surprising, but never would the Roches capture the same degree of power, wisdom and beauty that "Keep On Doing" possessed.

• Hallelujah Chorus
• Losing True
• Steady With the Maestro
• Largest Elizabeth in the World
• On the Road to Fairfax County
• I Fell in Love
• Scorpion Lament
• Want Not Want Not
• Sex Is for Children
• Keep on Doing What You Do/Jerks on the Loose