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Nellie McKay - Obligatory Villagers (2007)

From its opening line of "Feminists don't have a sense of humor" ("Mother of Pearl") through the closing snarls and growls courtesy of the living dead ("Zombie"), Nellie McKay's "Obligatory Villagers" is a brief (by her standards) near-32-minute rush of cheeky social commentary set to a boisterous and playful jazzy cabaret soundtrack. McKay's biting wit shines through here as on previous efforts, as she takes jabs at everything from male chauvinism ("Mother of Pearl") to identity theft ("Identity Theft") and just plain life in general ("Livin's a bunch of shit," she chants on the pirate ditty "Livin' "). On the strength of her self-penned arrangements, the set moves effortlessly from chilled-out lounge jazz to disco and theatrical pop. —Jill Menze

Track Listings

1. Mother of Pearl

2. Oversure

3. Gin Rummy

4. Livin

5. Identity Theft

6. Galleon

7. Politan

8. Testify

9. Zombie

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Commentary:

1) Mother Of Pearl-

This tongue-in-cheek send up of feminists mocks men much in the same way I Want To Get Married did on GAFM. Every line is pretty much a punchline. Overall, it's a nice 'standalone' song to start off the album. A nice bouncy uke strums in the background along with the rants of random men. Lots of fun to sing along to.

2) Oversure-

The 'real' start of the album, you immediately enter the world of Obligatory Villagers. The full horn section makes you feel like you've just turned on some old late night TV show from the 60's. The song becomes a bit spastic after the opening, but it's still fun. A lot of the song smells of jazz and is a lot of fun to listen to. It's rare to hear a song of the genre in this pop music age.

3) Gin Rummy-

Starts off as a super-relaxed ditty....the lyrics speed up a little bit as you reach the chorus, but overall a really relaxed piece. There's a little bit of a 'Chicago' (the band) feel every now and then. Musically a very simple piece, lyrically not-so-much.

4) Livin'-

The last of the 'opening' songs (as I like to call them). This is just a giant, drunk Irish singing song. Not much more to it. It's only 25 seconds long, so it's OK.

5) Identity Theft-

Tons of lyrics to follow in this one. A sort-of Caribbean feel, with the typical McKay twists. I think the chorus in the song is more interesting than the other elements.

6) Galleon-

A ridiculous amount of fun. This song is ALL over the place and is actually has some rock elements to it. Guitars provide most of the backing. There's a lot of energy during the whole thing and is just fun.

7) Pollitan-

A laid back piece. For some reason, I immediately associate this song with James Bond....dunno exactly why. It's very cool, though. A slight latino rhythm.

8) Testify-

Perhaps the most fun song. It goes all over the place and initially confused the hell out of me. I really don't know what else to say.

9) Zombiie- Not sure if this should be the song to close the album. When she performed it live, she had the backing track played on a computer while she sang and performed the zomie dance. In that setting, it's a ton of fun. As a regular song, it's not too bad, but I don't think it's strong enough to end the album. It doesn't leave the left taste in your mouth. Considering the vibe of Pollitan, I think Zombie would have worked better as the second-to-last with Testify being the last.

Nellie McKay Forum

The irony inherent in Obligatory Villagers, the shortest of Nellie McKay's first three albums, is that it's her most difficult to understand, comprehend, or even take in. This despite the fact that, unlike her first two albums, these nine songs don't sprawl stylistically. Except for a light pop opener -- granted, that opener is a mocking satire of conservatives called "Mother of Pearl" with an opening line ("Feminists don't have a sense of humor") that deftly counterbalances McKay's later call for a dance break -- the album is Broadway all the way. With McKay's voice and piano, plus heavyweight help from jazz horns including David Liebman, Phil Woods, and Bob Dorough (the latter a singing horn), the album charges by with lightning speed. Her nimble Broadway orchestrations step and kick so quickly that it's nearly impossible to decode McKay's lyrics until after several listens -- even keeping up with the lyric book is difficult. (On his features, Dorough plays it up perfectly, a bemused and befuddled onlooker to the madness.) The fact that Obligatory Villagers does eventually coalesce into a unified and pleasurable listening experience is primarily a testatment to Nellie McKay's sizable skills in arrangement and orchestration; writing original charts to provide the meat, then quoting from show-tune tradition where she needs to lighten the mood, she makes the entire album a treat, an entertaining experience that listeners will want to sit through over and over until they figure out all of the points -- large and small -- she's making in these songs. If only there was a Broadway musical companion for Obligatory Villagers that listeners could actually sit through, either to visually unite the songs or merely to watch while they listened, Obligatory Villagers would be an amazing soundtrack.

Review by John Bush

In 2005, cabaret upstart Nellie McKay vacated her Columbia deal so she could release Pretty Little Head at sixty-five minutes instead of forty-eight. But on this follow-up, she zigs where she once zagged -- the nine songs last barely half an hour, and they're better for it. Track for track, Obligatory Villagers is no stronger than its predecessor. But things are over so fast that it's carried by its two or three standouts, innumerable charming moments and kooky mood. Announcing itself with an insouciantly sarcastic "Feminists don't have a sense of humor," the piano-bar "Mother of Pearl" serves as an overture to the Broadway orchestrations six horns provide thereafter. The clever lyrics seldom fully parse, not even on the paranoia panorama "Identity Theft" or the enticing fantasia that begins, "Saturday night in the men's ensemble dressing room." They just flesh out a surreal musical you'll never see because the mercurial McKay has already moved on to who knows what other projects -- but would catch if she ever buckled down and finished it.

Robert Christgau

No worse for wear following some major label finagling, era-defying songstress Nellie McKay returns September 25 with Obligatory Villagers, her third LP and second released via her own Hungry Mouse imprint.

The idiosyncratic vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter-- fresh off a Broadway run in The Threepenny Opera-- has crafted (perhaps not coincidentally) an album filled to the brim with the flair of musical theater. From the cheeky ukulele-and-tap-shoes "dance break!" in the middle of album opener "Mother of Pearl" to the chorus of brain-hungry zombies on a finale titled, yes, "Zombie", Villagers finds Nellie and her collaborators at their most lively and rambunctious.

Those collaborators include Bob Dorough, of "Schoolhouse Rock" fame, who lends vocals to several tracks on the new record.

"I just wanted to do all these songs in the Poconos," Nellie told Pitchfork recently, referring to the Northeastern Pennsylvania mountain region where she recorded Villagers. "It's kind of a homecoming. I mean, if you want to find a good person in the world, the Poconos are a good place to start."

While the new songs seem tailor-made for some musical-in-the-making, Nellie says there are no immediate plans to translate her tunes for that sort of stage. Although anything is possible: "If someone gave me this money, you know, I could turn it into a painting."

McKay (which the lady herself pronounces "mik-EYE", FYI) likes to evade when describing her own compositions. Of new track "Identity Theft", she says, "Today I think it's a rumination on cubism. I'm not exactly sure."

With "Zombie" she's more forthright, if only slightly. "I think that everyone secretly wants to be a zombie," Nellie offered. And what about those whose autopilot, consumption-based lifestyles are already halfway there? "They don't go far enough with it," according to Nellie. "[They should] have a little more fun with it, go with the flow." Well all left then.

At only nine tracks, Obligatory Villagers will be Nellie's shortest album by a long shot. Her previous long-players-- 2004's Get Away From Me and last year's much-delayed Pretty Little Head-- were both double-disc affairs clocking in at around 20 songs apiece.

This wasn't a conscious move toward brevity on Nellie's part, however. "It just kind of ended up that way," she said with a laugh. "We always aim for less than 30 [songs]."

Pitchfork

Biography by Alex Henderson

Get Away from Me, the title of singer/songwriter Nellie McKay's debut album, was a play on two titles by romantic female vocalists who became popular in the early 2000s: Norah Jones' Come Away with Me and Jane Monheit's Come Dream with Me. But while McKay shares some of Jones and Monheit's influences -- vocal jazz, cabaret, pre-rock Brill Building pop, torch singing -- and has some things in common with them melodically, it would be a huge mistake to lump her in with Jones, Monheit, and Diana Krall. Those jazz or jazz-influenced pop artists tend to be romantically comforting, whereas McKay's lyrics can be every bit as cutting, edgy, and biting as Alanis Morissette or Pink -- and to lump McKay in with Jones, Monheit, and Krall ignores the fact that her work is distinctive and impressively unorthodox.

McKay, who is also a talented pianist, brings an unlikely combination of influences to her work, which isn't easy to categorize. The New York City resident is relevant to pop/rock, but she is also relevant to cabaret, traditional pop, and vocal jazz. Tin Pan Alley, Kurt Weill, Cole Porter, Annie Ross, Peggy Lee, and Billie Holiday have affected her writing (either directly or indirectly), but so have Dory Previn and Randy Newman (the latter a frequent comparison), the Beatles, and hip-hop. McKay, in fact, shares Newman's penchant for lyrics that are cynical and sarcastic as well as dark-humored; like Newman, McKay knows how to laugh at the world even when she's complaining about how screwed up it is -- and she can be incredibly clever and witty.

McKay was born in London, England, on April 13, 1984, but spent most of her early life in the United States. At the age of two, McKay (an only child) moved with her mother (actress Robin Pappas) to New York City -- and the two of them lived in Manhattan's Harlem section until 1994, when they moved west to Olympia, WA. After that, they lived in the Poconos in northeastern Pennsylvania, but in 2000, they returned to N.Y.C. so that McKay could attend the Manhattan School of Music. After dropping out, McKay briefly flirted with standup comedy but gave it up and made music her primary focus. McKay began performing around Manhattan in the early 2000s, and for a while, she was managed by folk-rocker Lach (who often booked her at the Sidewalk Cafe in the East Village).

McKay's gigs at Manhattan clubs like the Sidewalk Cafe and the Fez earned her a small East Coast following, and in 2003, she signed with Columbia. Other labels had expressed interest, including Virgin and Blue Note, but she felt that Columbia had the greatest understanding of her musical vision. Nonetheless, McKay had some creative differences with the label; she wanted to call her debut album either Black America or Penis Envy, and Columbia disliked both. But eventually, McKay and Columbia agreed on the title Get Away from Me. Produced and engineered by Geoff Emerick -- best known for his work with the Beatles -- Get Away from Me was released in February 2004. Although it made the year-end lists of many critics, creative conflict between McKay and Columbia only continued.

Sparring over producers and direction for her sophomore album eventually resulted in McKay financing the recordings herself; the result, titled Pretty Little Head, was due to be released in early 2006, but McKay was let go and the album was dropped from Columbia's release schedule. At the same time, McKay was busy rehearsing for co-starring role in a Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera with Alan Cummings, Ana Gasteyer, and Cyndi Lauper. Pretty Little Head finally surfaced in October of 2006, released on McKay's own Hungry Mouse label and overseen by the indie spinART. Less than one year later, McKay returned with a 30-minute miniature entitled Obligatory Villagers.

Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123