You Gotta Sin to Get Saved
By Maria McKee
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Track listing
Show track credits
- 1 I'm Gonna Soothe You 3:39
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writer
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writer
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bass
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backing vocals
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backing vocals
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backing vocals
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- 2 My Lonely Sad Eyes 2:42
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writer
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- 3 My Girlhood Among the Outlaws 3:45
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writer
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- 4 Only Once 4:04
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drums
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writer
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bass
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backing vocals
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backing vocals
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- 5 I Forgive You 5:11
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writer
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backing vocals
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backing vocals
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bass
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writer
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drums
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piano
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- 6 I Can't Make It Alone 3:39
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drums
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bass
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writer
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writer
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- 7 Precious Time 3:38
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writer
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writer
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mixing
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- 8 The Way Young Lovers Do 3:30
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writer
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- 9 Why Wasn't I More Grateful (When Life Was Sweet) 5:05
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writer
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writer
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writer
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writer
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saxophone
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Nicole Smithhandclaps
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- 10 You Gotta Sin to Get Saved 5:52
- Total length: 41:05
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
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5 Issues
6 Reviews
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1
I'm Gonna Soothe You
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2
My Lonely Sad Eyes
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3
My Girlhood Among the Outlaws
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4
Only Once
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5
I Forgive You
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6
I Can't Make It Alone
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7
Precious Time
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8
The Way Young Lovers Do
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9
Why Wasn't I More Grateful (When Life Was Sweet)
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10
You Gotta Sin to Get Saved
I kind of expected much more after a 4 year gap, but this is way too disjointed and confused. Still a great voice, and some nice pieces here and there, but overall I think this doesn't do her justice.
Best tracks
My Lonely Sad Eyes
Only Once
Precious Time
Published
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Much more soul than her debut album for sure, you can tell maria admires janis joplin and dusty springfield and the production from george drakoulias is much more sympathetic to what she is trying to do than on the debut.
"i'm gonna soothe you" with its memphis style horns is a slow burning,sexy opener and the van and dusty springfield covers come off quite well too. Occasionally she reverts back to the country that inspired her early on but there is also a pronounced gospel feel to the title track.
Good record, i liked her singing a lot more here than on her debut, she sounds a lot more comfortable.
"i'm gonna soothe you" with its memphis style horns is a slow burning,sexy opener and the van and dusty springfield covers come off quite well too. Occasionally she reverts back to the country that inspired her early on but there is also a pronounced gospel feel to the title track.
Good record, i liked her singing a lot more here than on her debut, she sounds a lot more comfortable.
Published
The American flipside to Texas' Rick's road, this is great, soulful roots rock music sung by a great voice. A million miles away from her hit single "Show me heaven", this album covers a lot of styles. There's pop with her cover of Them's "My lonely sad eyes" and "Precious time", a soul ballad with the great "My girlhood among the outlaws", country music with "Only once" and there's the title track which even has some gospel influences. Van Morrison's "The way young lovers do" also gets an inspired cover. All performed by a band with some amazing musicians, who are also obviously having a lot of fun. But it's that wonderful soulful voice that keeps it all together. An album that grabs you the first time you hear it, but also keeps improving after years of playing. Everytime I hear this I'm wondering why I don't own any more Maria McKee albums. A day before writing this review I had a cheap copy of Life is sweet in my hands but in the end I decided not to buy it. I must have been mad.
Published
Former Lone Justice leader Maria McKee’s 1993 album, _You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_ is a very good, but flawed work. Upon first hearing it, I thought it was a transitional effort, with McKee continuing to search for her sound on her second solo outing. The complex songs grow on you after a few listenings and I found the two most recent spins of this album that I did prior to writing this review to be the most satisfying.
McKee takes chances on _You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_ and usually succeeds, but that makes listening to it both exhilarating and infuriating. I found myself feeling both emotions during different parts of the same song at times. This is mostly an alternative country-rock album, but McKee takes bits and pieces from many other genres as well with mixed, but mostly good, results.
_You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_ offers a nice mix of four covers and six songs that McKee either wrote or co-wrote. Two of the covers are Van Morrison songs. One of the Morrison tunes, “The Way Young Lovers Do” is great. It doesn’t stray far from the original, but McKee is singing at her best on this one and the jazzy, over the top arrangement works. The other Morrison cover, “My Lonely Sad Eyes” doesn’t fare quite as well, but McKee’s spirited vocal nearly saves it. The albums other covers are two of the album’s better tracks. The Louris/Olson song, “Precious Time” is pure alt-country, the genre where McKee is at her best. The Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune, “I Can’t Make it Alone” has one of the album’s simplest arrangements and that’s a good thing as nothing gets in the way of McKee’s beautiful voice. This is one of my two favorites here, along with the album’s best original, “Only Once”. “Only Once” is as close as McKee gets to outright country music, and even though that isn’t usually my choice of genres, this song is so beautifully sung that it completely wins me over.
The other originals are a mixed bag. The album’s opener, “I’m Gonna Soothe You”, takes some getting used to. It seems a bit too polished compared to the Lone Justice albums, but this jazzy blues number, with McKee’s sexiest vocal on the album, is ultimately a winner. One problem with this song, and couple of the others as well, is that the female backing vocals are a little forward in the mix and seem to clash with McKee’s voice and the instruments. Another winner, and the most interesting song lyrically, is “My Girlhood Among the Outlaws”. The song that just doesn’t work for me is “I Forgive You”. This one has an overblown arrangement with lots of horns and a big backing gospel influenced chorus. There’s too much going on, with all the elements fighting for attention. A better mixing job might have saved this one.
After the excellent bluesy original, “Why Wasn’t I More Grateful”, the album’s title track closes the proceedings. It’s a microcosm of the entire album, in that it begins as a bland mid-tempo number with some gospel leanings, something that doesn’t quite seem to be working, and it becomes more gospel influenced as it progresses and it finishes as a very powerful and special song with the gospel backup singers adding value rather than detracting in this case. The result of all this is that _You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_, while tough to get a handle on, is real grower that will reward repeated listenings.
McKee takes chances on _You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_ and usually succeeds, but that makes listening to it both exhilarating and infuriating. I found myself feeling both emotions during different parts of the same song at times. This is mostly an alternative country-rock album, but McKee takes bits and pieces from many other genres as well with mixed, but mostly good, results.
_You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_ offers a nice mix of four covers and six songs that McKee either wrote or co-wrote. Two of the covers are Van Morrison songs. One of the Morrison tunes, “The Way Young Lovers Do” is great. It doesn’t stray far from the original, but McKee is singing at her best on this one and the jazzy, over the top arrangement works. The other Morrison cover, “My Lonely Sad Eyes” doesn’t fare quite as well, but McKee’s spirited vocal nearly saves it. The albums other covers are two of the album’s better tracks. The Louris/Olson song, “Precious Time” is pure alt-country, the genre where McKee is at her best. The Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune, “I Can’t Make it Alone” has one of the album’s simplest arrangements and that’s a good thing as nothing gets in the way of McKee’s beautiful voice. This is one of my two favorites here, along with the album’s best original, “Only Once”. “Only Once” is as close as McKee gets to outright country music, and even though that isn’t usually my choice of genres, this song is so beautifully sung that it completely wins me over.
The other originals are a mixed bag. The album’s opener, “I’m Gonna Soothe You”, takes some getting used to. It seems a bit too polished compared to the Lone Justice albums, but this jazzy blues number, with McKee’s sexiest vocal on the album, is ultimately a winner. One problem with this song, and couple of the others as well, is that the female backing vocals are a little forward in the mix and seem to clash with McKee’s voice and the instruments. Another winner, and the most interesting song lyrically, is “My Girlhood Among the Outlaws”. The song that just doesn’t work for me is “I Forgive You”. This one has an overblown arrangement with lots of horns and a big backing gospel influenced chorus. There’s too much going on, with all the elements fighting for attention. A better mixing job might have saved this one.
After the excellent bluesy original, “Why Wasn’t I More Grateful”, the album’s title track closes the proceedings. It’s a microcosm of the entire album, in that it begins as a bland mid-tempo number with some gospel leanings, something that doesn’t quite seem to be working, and it becomes more gospel influenced as it progresses and it finishes as a very powerful and special song with the gospel backup singers adding value rather than detracting in this case. The result of all this is that _You Gotta Sin to Get Saved_, while tough to get a handle on, is real grower that will reward repeated listenings.
Published
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I don't think I am part of the demographic that would appreciate this record, although this woman can sing and she has some very good players behind her. The last couple of songs show that she can sing the blues quite convincingly.
Published
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4 Jun 2023
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1
I'm Gonna Soothe You
-
2
My Lonely Sad Eyes
-
3
My Girlhood Among the Outlaws
-
4
Only Once
-
5
I Forgive You
-
6
I Can't Make It Alone
-
7
Precious Time
-
8
The Way Young Lovers Do
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9
Why Wasn't I More Grateful (When Life Was Sweet)
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10 You Gotta Sin to Get Saved
24 May 2023
22 May 2023
11 May 2023
