Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
By Laura Nyro
| . | . | . | . |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Luckie 3:00
- A2 Lu 2:44
- A3 Sweet Blindness 2:37
- A4 Poverty Train 4:16
- A5 Lonely Women 3:32
- A6 Eli's Comin 3:58
-
piano
-
- B1 Timer 3:22
- B2 Stoned Soul Picnic 3:47
- B3 Emmie 4:20
- B4 Woman's Blues 3:46
- B5 Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe) 2:58
-
piano
-
- B6 December's Boudoir 5:05
- B7 The Confession 2:50
- Total length: 46:15
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
To rate, slide your finger across the stars from left to right.
13 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession [p] 33 rpm
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession 33 rpm, Promo
-
-
-
-
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Bonus Tracks
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Expanded and Remastered Edition [Advance] Bonus Tracks, Paper/Cardboard Sleeve, Promo
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Bonus Tracks, Remastered
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Bonus Tracks, Remastered
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession 180 gram, 33 rpm
-
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Hybrid Multichannel 4.0 SACD Collector's Edition, Numbered Edition, Quadraphonic, Slipcase / O-Card
-
83 Reviews
Whilst Carole King and Joni Mitchell became household names, contemporary New York singer-songwriter Laura Nyro was largely forgotten. On listening to this, her second album, it's easy to hear why she was denied wide spread appeal but hard to understand why her critical acclaim hasn't resounded a little more loudly. For sheer breadth of achievement and originality, nobody from the singer-songwriter scene of the late 60's/early 70's comes close to Nyro at her best. She takes elements from pre-rock popular music, jazz, blues, gospel, show-music etc. and transforms them into a style of her own. When she sings and plays the piano her approach is almost anarchic, avoiding conventional song structures, instead shifting mood and tempo wherever the lyric requires it.
The first three songs are of a kind that might have made hits for the Tamla Motown corporation but, in fact, radically revise that style to create complex arrangements, that, once appreciated, never lose their attraction. Too full of twists and turns to dance to or to catch on quickly enough for radio play but an absolutely magnificent listening experience never-the-less.
Poverty Train is a loose, 6/8 shuffle that ends up in a haunted no-mans land. Lonely Women cries the blues for two out-of-time verses along with some cool counterpoint saxophone before Nyro's empathy for the subject pours forth in an emotional out-burst; "Let me die, early morning, woe woe woe bitter tears". A big 3/4 timpani-driven accompaniment crashes in, Nyro's voice goes into over-drive as she barely holds on to the melody. It's one of the high-lights of the album but also the point at which many will have had enough, such is the nature of Nyro's music.
Eli's Comin' sums up everything that's gone before in just under four minutes of sustained excitement akin to a gospel choir. The song incorporates ingenious modulations, a feverish vocal delivery, rapturous backing vocals, dynamic instrumentation and an extended coda at half-tempo that's nothing short of miraculous!
Timer is almost equally dazzling, always speeding up and slowing down, Nyro clearly having fun, experimenting with her remarkable voice.
Stoned Soul Picnic is more relaxed with a slow latin rhythm that goes through various subtle changes and showcases Nyro's glorious harmonies.
Emmie is an exquisite love song with a delicate arrangement using harp, vibes, brass and strings. The elongated pause between the verses is like a pause for reflection and when verse two comes in, even slower than verse one, it suggests a dream-like reverie. All this from a 20 year-old! To break its spell, Nyro ups the tempo at the end to add a final, happy twist to the song.
The funky groove on Woman's Blues is like a loose James Brown, totally compelling. Nyro's performance is exemplory, even if a little incomprehensible. Farmer Joe is in a similar vein, it stops and starts but is, at its heart, another r&b rocker. But nothing is that simple in Nyro's world and both songs include as many ideas as could be turned into songs themselves.
Slowing things right down the magnificent and moody December Boudoir paints a picture of young love and rising passion, at times tender, at times exciting, using chords and intervals almost impossibly clever and uniquely expressive.
The final song (the 13th), Confession, is where Nyro tells us what it's all been about and where she celebrates both the spiritual and the physical. Its up-tempo forward motion leads inexorably to its climax.
Enough said, Eli And The Thirteenth Confession is a masterpiece by any measure, sadly under-appreciated by the wider public but greatly treasured by her fans.
The first three songs are of a kind that might have made hits for the Tamla Motown corporation but, in fact, radically revise that style to create complex arrangements, that, once appreciated, never lose their attraction. Too full of twists and turns to dance to or to catch on quickly enough for radio play but an absolutely magnificent listening experience never-the-less.
Poverty Train is a loose, 6/8 shuffle that ends up in a haunted no-mans land. Lonely Women cries the blues for two out-of-time verses along with some cool counterpoint saxophone before Nyro's empathy for the subject pours forth in an emotional out-burst; "Let me die, early morning, woe woe woe bitter tears". A big 3/4 timpani-driven accompaniment crashes in, Nyro's voice goes into over-drive as she barely holds on to the melody. It's one of the high-lights of the album but also the point at which many will have had enough, such is the nature of Nyro's music.
Eli's Comin' sums up everything that's gone before in just under four minutes of sustained excitement akin to a gospel choir. The song incorporates ingenious modulations, a feverish vocal delivery, rapturous backing vocals, dynamic instrumentation and an extended coda at half-tempo that's nothing short of miraculous!
Timer is almost equally dazzling, always speeding up and slowing down, Nyro clearly having fun, experimenting with her remarkable voice.
Stoned Soul Picnic is more relaxed with a slow latin rhythm that goes through various subtle changes and showcases Nyro's glorious harmonies.
Emmie is an exquisite love song with a delicate arrangement using harp, vibes, brass and strings. The elongated pause between the verses is like a pause for reflection and when verse two comes in, even slower than verse one, it suggests a dream-like reverie. All this from a 20 year-old! To break its spell, Nyro ups the tempo at the end to add a final, happy twist to the song.
The funky groove on Woman's Blues is like a loose James Brown, totally compelling. Nyro's performance is exemplory, even if a little incomprehensible. Farmer Joe is in a similar vein, it stops and starts but is, at its heart, another r&b rocker. But nothing is that simple in Nyro's world and both songs include as many ideas as could be turned into songs themselves.
Slowing things right down the magnificent and moody December Boudoir paints a picture of young love and rising passion, at times tender, at times exciting, using chords and intervals almost impossibly clever and uniquely expressive.
The final song (the 13th), Confession, is where Nyro tells us what it's all been about and where she celebrates both the spiritual and the physical. Its up-tempo forward motion leads inexorably to its climax.
Enough said, Eli And The Thirteenth Confession is a masterpiece by any measure, sadly under-appreciated by the wider public but greatly treasured by her fans.
Published
ADVERTISEMENT
In the spring of 1968, Laura Nyro's Columbia Records debut Eli and the Thirteenth Confession unleashed something very unique and beautiful onto the scene. Unfortunately, the album fell on mostly deaf ears, peaking at #189 on the Billboard 200, and as with Laura's following record New York Tendaberry, contained no chart hit singles (for herself). Nearly thirty years later, Laura Nyro is still woefully unknown to the public, although the potency of her music remains.
Upon Laura's insistence, the lyric sheet within each LP was perfumed. This act in itself says a lot about her artistry. While the instrumentation and influences evident in Eli and the Thirteenth Confession are mostly familiar, new perspectives and directions make the album into the radical experience that it is. Reviewers commonly refer to the music as an amalgamation of Soul, Pop, Jazz, Broadway, and whatever else, but these styles are so expertly fused into something wonderfully new, that naming the possible components just isn't worthwhile. "Sweet Blindness" may sound age-old, but there's never been another drinking song remotely like it. "Poverty Train" goes to more places, and back again, than any of Bob Dylan and company's "protest" songs. Sexual revolutions and all, a woman ending her album by screaming "love my lovething" had to have been something original. Throughout the record, Laura's voice, piano, and guitars careen and writhe all over, tempos and chord structures being swept to and fro at her pleasing. But originality is only half of the story.
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was in many ways Ms. Nyro's first complete musical statement, and as such it was the first to exhibit her overall mastery of the LP. Although many of the lyrics are ambiguous and even downright silly, one can't help but find several over-arching themes from song to song and throughout the record. And from the opening "Yes I'm ready!" to the fiery lust of "The Confession", Laura makes full use of the album format, taking every turn with thoughtful effectiveness.
The energy and sincerity of Laura's songs is at once confounding and life-affirming. If we'd like to use the term, Laura Nyro had a hell of a lot of soul. Her voice alone creates much of the appeal of the record, at times sorrowful, grumbling, at times joyful and chirping, but at all times infinitely human. On a personal note, I'm beginning to find it more and more difficult to listen to anything but Laura Nyro, and while this isn't her best record, it is the best place to start. Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is for the most part equal to New York Tendaberry, it just doesn't have the same profound feeling that makes up that record. This is a definition of a master in one space in time, and a model for the kind of innovations that can be borne of Popular music. Maybe in another thirty years Laura will have the audience she always deserved.
Upon Laura's insistence, the lyric sheet within each LP was perfumed. This act in itself says a lot about her artistry. While the instrumentation and influences evident in Eli and the Thirteenth Confession are mostly familiar, new perspectives and directions make the album into the radical experience that it is. Reviewers commonly refer to the music as an amalgamation of Soul, Pop, Jazz, Broadway, and whatever else, but these styles are so expertly fused into something wonderfully new, that naming the possible components just isn't worthwhile. "Sweet Blindness" may sound age-old, but there's never been another drinking song remotely like it. "Poverty Train" goes to more places, and back again, than any of Bob Dylan and company's "protest" songs. Sexual revolutions and all, a woman ending her album by screaming "love my lovething" had to have been something original. Throughout the record, Laura's voice, piano, and guitars careen and writhe all over, tempos and chord structures being swept to and fro at her pleasing. But originality is only half of the story.
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was in many ways Ms. Nyro's first complete musical statement, and as such it was the first to exhibit her overall mastery of the LP. Although many of the lyrics are ambiguous and even downright silly, one can't help but find several over-arching themes from song to song and throughout the record. And from the opening "Yes I'm ready!" to the fiery lust of "The Confession", Laura makes full use of the album format, taking every turn with thoughtful effectiveness.
The energy and sincerity of Laura's songs is at once confounding and life-affirming. If we'd like to use the term, Laura Nyro had a hell of a lot of soul. Her voice alone creates much of the appeal of the record, at times sorrowful, grumbling, at times joyful and chirping, but at all times infinitely human. On a personal note, I'm beginning to find it more and more difficult to listen to anything but Laura Nyro, and while this isn't her best record, it is the best place to start. Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is for the most part equal to New York Tendaberry, it just doesn't have the same profound feeling that makes up that record. This is a definition of a master in one space in time, and a model for the kind of innovations that can be borne of Popular music. Maybe in another thirty years Laura will have the audience she always deserved.
Published
ADVERTISEMENT
A voice that goes right through you like a bowl of prunes.
Published
My Wife Life Me #288
There’s an old story that Laura Nyro managed to convince her label to perfume the lyrics insert of her 1968 sophomore album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession so the record would smell of lilacs. I love that. When I picked up a copy about half a year ago on the insistence of a friend, I spent quite a bit of time sniffing the old paper, trying to decide whether I really was detecting some faint memory of floral notes under the decades of vintage shop dust, or whether I just wanted it to be so. Part of the appeal to me of old vinyl records, even as compared to books, is that despite their age this insensate wax can speak aloud to you from out of the past—it’s a simple enough technology, but I still find something magical about that notion. Nyro’s olfactory flourish, and the transfixing portrait on the cover, add flesh to that sense of physically communing with the spirits.
Unfortunately, that’s probably the last nice thing I’m going to say about Nyro in this review, as I kind of hate her lyrics; her ridiculous jive slang; her endless piercing caterwaul. Throughout Eli I often find myself thinking of a passage from a Father John Misty song, which I take no pleasure in being able to quote:
We sang “Silent Night” in three parts which was fun
Till she said that she sounds just like Sarah Vaughan
I hate that soulful affectation white girls put on
Why don’t you move to the Delta?
I cannot describe to you the instantaneous cringing sensation I felt on hearing “Luckie” for the first time, Nyro honking up and down on every syllable (“Well, THERe’s an AVenUE of DeVil”) in a manner that could be called “brassy” if you consider a bike horn a brass instrument, her bleached hep slang as convincingly Black as Perry Como doing Isaac Hayes. She has the vibe of a white girl who thinks she’s edgy because she jerked it thinking about a Black guy once; she’s Quentin Tarantino doing an interview on BET while sitting at a Steinway.
Nyro’s writing reminds me of the word-stuffed worst of early Springsteen, only at least when Bruce is singing about elephants dancing real funky and midgets licking their fingers and whatnot he’s not doing it in a voice that scrapes at the ear with long red fingernails. Every time I hear her take a deep breath to start swooping again I feel like a chihuahua in the park watching a hawk descend. I wish there was a knob on my stereo that could turn down not just the volume but the witless intensity of her performances, so that those moments when she does strike poetry (as on the nearly lovely Sapphic ode “Emmie”) she could let the lines simply be, allow the words do their work rather than turning them into stinging projectiles hurled by her gusting breaths. Because that’s the other issue: Nyro is certainly loud, and an inventive vocal arranger, but she is not nearly good enough as a singer to be attacking these songs this way. Somewhere, Jeff Mangum is listening to “Lu” and thinking, to the tune of “King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 2” “THIIIIS ISSS A LITT-LE MUUUUUUUUUUU-UUUU-UUUUUUCH, JEEEESSUUUUS CHRIIIIIIST—.”
288/365
Published
Rather like her contemporary Jimmy Webb, New Yorker Laura Nyro was a talented songwriter who strove without much success for their own commercial success as a solo performer while watching others make the charts with selections from their songbooks.
Nyro however it seemed to me was certainly a better singer than Webb and I'd also wager, a more idiosyncratic and interesting recording artist. This was her second album, my introduction to her work and I found it to be pretty individualistic, eclectic and enjoyable.
I did recognise some of the tunes from their hit incarnations by other artists, who noticeably don't seem to stray much from her own imaginative arrangements, hits like "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Sweet Blindness" by 5th Dimension and "Eli's Coming" by Three Dog Night. They're all strong, rousing efforts, predicated on Nyro's pounding, gospel-fused piano and her ardent, just-this-side-of-shrill, often multi-tracked vocals.
I have to confess, I do prefer her when she's banging down on the piano keys on thumpers like "Luckie", "Lu", "Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)" and the three hit covers, "Eli's Comin'", "Sweet Blindness" and "Stoned Soul Picnic", the last two of which sound like they could have been written for a contemporary revival of "Oklahoma". There's a lovely warm melody for a lovely warm song about friendship on "Emmie" and she even anticipates a much later lyric from of all people Donna Summer on the closing "The Confession".
But when she goes into introspection or social commentary her music goes all jazzy and improvisational, rather losing me in the process. Her use of language too is colloquial and quirky, perhaps a little too much so for me at times.
More Tin Pan Alley than Brill Building, she nevertheless seems to be an interesting and occasionally intriguing songwriter, worthy of deeper investigation, although I personally think I'll end up stopping short of the exaltation in which celebrity fans like Elton John, Todd Rundgren and Rickie Lee Jones, to name but three, seem to hold her.
Nyro however it seemed to me was certainly a better singer than Webb and I'd also wager, a more idiosyncratic and interesting recording artist. This was her second album, my introduction to her work and I found it to be pretty individualistic, eclectic and enjoyable.
I did recognise some of the tunes from their hit incarnations by other artists, who noticeably don't seem to stray much from her own imaginative arrangements, hits like "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Sweet Blindness" by 5th Dimension and "Eli's Coming" by Three Dog Night. They're all strong, rousing efforts, predicated on Nyro's pounding, gospel-fused piano and her ardent, just-this-side-of-shrill, often multi-tracked vocals.
I have to confess, I do prefer her when she's banging down on the piano keys on thumpers like "Luckie", "Lu", "Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)" and the three hit covers, "Eli's Comin'", "Sweet Blindness" and "Stoned Soul Picnic", the last two of which sound like they could have been written for a contemporary revival of "Oklahoma". There's a lovely warm melody for a lovely warm song about friendship on "Emmie" and she even anticipates a much later lyric from of all people Donna Summer on the closing "The Confession".
But when she goes into introspection or social commentary her music goes all jazzy and improvisational, rather losing me in the process. Her use of language too is colloquial and quirky, perhaps a little too much so for me at times.
More Tin Pan Alley than Brill Building, she nevertheless seems to be an interesting and occasionally intriguing songwriter, worthy of deeper investigation, although I personally think I'll end up stopping short of the exaltation in which celebrity fans like Elton John, Todd Rundgren and Rickie Lee Jones, to name but three, seem to hold her.
Published
what a wonderful prog pop record!! would’ve never known abt this woman if not for good ol merton. laura nyro strikes me as sort of a carole king type figure, but w/ more complex, progressive, and (lowkey) better songwriting. record’s loaded w/ beautiful, twisting, winding arrangements - strangely nostalgic even tho i didn’t grow up w/ it, not to mention the woman was gone before i was even born
Published
Stoned Soul Picnic is amazing, along with some other tracks that showed Laura Nyro's whimsicality as a songwriter. Yet the entire album took quite some effort to get into. Her brash vocal style may impress technically, but after 46 minutes of her seeming nervosity, I got the aesthetic fatigue. Rendering this album 'confessional' is more like a double-edged sword: justifying her freedom of choice yet inevitably making this work too unpolished and self-absorbed.
However, like it or not, I couldn't deny how brave and prescient this album is. Yes, I can definitely spot some "suspicious" similarities in the vocal expressiveness between Laura Nyro and the famous British pop queen of the 80s. While Aretha Franklin's breakthrough single Respect -- hailed as one of the anthems of second-wave feminism -- depicted a strong and confident woman, this record carved out the emotional intricacies and vulnerabilities of a woman, and most importantly, with few references to the central "man" figures that are prominent in lots of unrequited love songs, which almost depicted the woman as inferior to, and fawning on the man. Because, after all, this is a "confessional" album. And staying true to herself is more important than anything. -- That is the gist of this album.
However, like it or not, I couldn't deny how brave and prescient this album is. Yes, I can definitely spot some "suspicious" similarities in the vocal expressiveness between Laura Nyro and the famous British pop queen of the 80s. While Aretha Franklin's breakthrough single Respect -- hailed as one of the anthems of second-wave feminism -- depicted a strong and confident woman, this record carved out the emotional intricacies and vulnerabilities of a woman, and most importantly, with few references to the central "man" figures that are prominent in lots of unrequited love songs, which almost depicted the woman as inferior to, and fawning on the man. Because, after all, this is a "confessional" album. And staying true to herself is more important than anything. -- That is the gist of this album.
8.5/10.0 B
Published
i think its impossible to listen to this record without smiling.
the way this thing twists and turns and plays with the conventional pop writing formula is incredible, inventive and fun, even some 60 years after it's initial release. this, along with Nyro's incredible vocals, creates a truly unique pop experience that has aged incredibly well. i love how she's able to take all these different genres and truly combines them to make her own signature sound, its awesome. it's an album that more people should check out because someone this talented should not be forgotten.
the way this thing twists and turns and plays with the conventional pop writing formula is incredible, inventive and fun, even some 60 years after it's initial release. this, along with Nyro's incredible vocals, creates a truly unique pop experience that has aged incredibly well. i love how she's able to take all these different genres and truly combines them to make her own signature sound, its awesome. it's an album that more people should check out because someone this talented should not be forgotten.
Published
Votes are used to help determine the most interesting content on RYM.
Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term.
Vote down content which breaks the rules.
Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term.
Vote down content which breaks the rules.
Catalog
6 Apr 2024
5 Apr 2024
5 Apr 2024
4 Apr 2024
3 Apr 2024
3 Apr 2024
2 Apr 2024
2 Apr 2024
2 Apr 2024
-
A1
Luckie
-
A2
Lu
-
A3
Sweet Blindness
-
A4
Poverty Train
-
A5
Lonely Women
-
A6
Eli's Comin
-
B1
Timer
-
B2
Stoned Soul Picnic
-
B3
Emmie
-
B4
Woman's Blues
-
B5
Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)
-
B6
December's Boudoir
-
B7
The Confession
2 Apr 2024
1 Apr 2024
-
A1
Luckie
-
A2
Lu
-
A3
Sweet Blindness
-
A4
Poverty Train
-
A5
Lonely Women
-
A6
Eli's Comin
-
B1
Timer
-
B2
Stoned Soul Picnic
-
B3
Emmie
-
B4
Woman's Blues
-
B5
Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)
-
B6
December's Boudoir
-
B7
The Confession
1 Apr 2024
31 Mar 2024
-
A1
Luckie
-
A2
Lu
-
A3
Sweet Blindness
-
A4
Poverty Train
-
A5
Lonely Women
-
A6 Eli's Comin
-
B1 Timer
-
B2 Stoned Soul Picnic
-
B3 Emmie
-
B4 Woman's Blues
-
B5 Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)
-
B6 December's Boudoir
-
B7 The Confession
30 Mar 2024
30 Mar 2024
Contributions
Log in to submit a correction or upload art for this release