Amos Lee: Supply and Demand

Label:

Pop music, despite the corporate hands that control it, has a reactionary nature. Youth-targeted musical trends like alienation, stimulation and the cult of celebrity seem to have spurred a counter-wave of lower-key artists, the prime example being Norah Jones. Her most recent songs aren’t all sweetness and light, but they’re wrapped in a warm, organic style in which millions are finding simple pleasures. Jones had a hand in the signing of Amos Lee to her adult-oriented home label, Blue Note, which recently released his second album, Supply and Demand. Lee is an introspective type, writing songs that resemble Jones’ easygoing jazz- and blues-tinged work. But his music, sung in a reedy voice, is less emotionally inviting than that of his labelmate. Lee carries a few banners of social consciousness, but they never quite override the album’s feeling of ambivalence.