Despite borrowing its title from an old Sonny and Cher record, The Wondrous
World of Damon & Naomi is hardly the stuff of lightweight, breezy
pop fare; much too precious and affected for its own good, the album is
at once the duo's most challenging and most disappointing effort, so burdened
by its rigorous intellectual aspirations that its more elemental attractions
get lost in the shuffle. From the needlessly ponderous "The New Historicism"
to the off-putting "Tour of the World," with its ill-fitting
bursts of audience applause, the songs consistently fail to congeal
all too often, they suggest ideas and abstracts that never progressed
beyond the conceptual phase. Similarly, a heavy reliance on cover material
(including readings of Country Joe and the Fish's "Who Am I"
and the Band's "Whispering Pines") reinforces the scarcity of
strong original ideas. The Wondrous World's best moments are also its
most unapologetically simple, in particular the beatific opening duet
"In the Morning" along with "Pyewacket" and "New
York City," a pair of sweetly elegiac showcases for Naomi Yang's
angelic musings.
(by Jason Ankeny, All
Music Guide)
|