pink martini

pink martini is the best band around today.

Since 1997, I've had a default gift that I've given people for birthdays and events...

sympathique

Pink Martini's Sympathique. A perfect album, you'd have to be a corpse not to like every single song on it. I must have bought this album at least 15 times for people. That's right. Bought it. The album is so good that even a cynic like me won't dupe it.

Chances are you've already heard their music without even knowing it. As far as exposure through movies and TV commercials, they have been right up there with Moby for the last few years.

There's really no point in trying to explain how good Pink Martini is. Go listen to them right now.

What I will do is explain what Pink Martini can do for you. If you are male, put Pink Martini on the stereo, and your IQ will instantly go about 30 points higher just by association. You will become instantly suave and sophisticated. If you have Pink Martini on in the background when you have that special date, you will get lucky every time. I promise.

hang on little tomato

Pink Martini's second album, Hang on Little Tomato, took them 7 years to put out. Every year since 1997, their web site said that they were going to release it "next Spring".

While waiting, I saw them at about 3 or 4 of their live shows, where they would play all these "new" songs. So you knew they had all this great ew material, but apparently they just didn't want to go into a studio, record, and release it.

Well they finally did release it. With album number 2, they once again hit it out of the park. It's another perfect album that I will be buying for people for years to come.

So, there's the criticism of Pink Martini's 7-year gap between records 1 and 2. So what of album number three? At a Summer 2006 show in San Diego, lead singer China Forbes announced to the crowd that they were halfway through the recording of a new album. And, sho'nuff, now you have...

hey eugene!

I think Pink Martini's sole motivation for releasing their third album, Hey Eugene!, was so nobody could bitch about 7 year gaps between records.

The title track, "Hey Eugene" has been a favorite at Pink Martini's live performances since at least 2000. Now that it is recorded, it's destined to become a huge hit. It's right there in the vein of Norah Jones' "Don't Why I Didn't Come" sort of instant-classic quality. If you haven't heard of Pink Martini until now, you will - thanks to this song alone.

Which is not to say this recording of "Hey Eugene" is really all that good. The song's soul has been lost in the slick, overproduced, contemporary R&B version found on this album. Almost to the point of Christina Aguilera-esque overproduction, I have no doubt it will be a huge hit with the public. But I'll be damned if it doesn't stick out from the rest of their song catalog like a sore thumb. A true shame - given this is an amazing song when performed live.

(For those interested hearing a more soulful, emotional version of "Eugene", seek out their older live performances on public radio.)

Is this to say that Pink Martini should go back to releasing albums every 7 years? Far from it. It's proof sometimes when you a song sit in the cellar too long, it becomes vinegar rather than wine.

The rest of the album? Surprisingly mediocre, save for the last track: "Tea For Two" featuring Jimmy Scott. Still, even a medium grade Pink Martini album is better than 95% of the crap coming out today.