Album Reviews

Real name Sarah Joyce, the 34 year-old singer-songwriter who goes by the name Rumer (after the English writer Margaret Rumer Godden), was born in Islamabad, Pakistan and is most often described as having a Karen Carpenter-like soothing, dreamy voice.

The daughter of a British woman whose British engineer husband was assigned there to work on a dam, Rumer and her six older siblings lived isolated in an ex-patriate community. Not until she was 11 and her “parents” divorced and the family moved back to England did she and her siblings discover that her actual father was the family’s Pakistani cook.

Uprooted in more ways then one, Rumer (then Sarah) finished her education at Dartington College of Arts where she studied drama, and then moved to London to begin a music career.

Upon learning that her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer she postponed her dreams and moved back to be with her. The 24 year old suffered a nervous breakdown after her mother’s passing in 2003, but a year later returned to London to resume her musical dreams.

She took time out to return to Pakistan to find her real father but when she got there she discovered that he’d recently died.

All of this background is an attempt to explain the inexorable sense of sadness and loss lurking in the backdrop behind that soothingly hypnotic, mesmerizing voice.

The singer-songwriter began gigging around London as Sarah Prentice, gathering a fan base and about a decade after she began, she signed with Atlantic Records, U.K. Soon thereafter in 2010 the label released Seasons of the Soul, her first album as Rumer, produced by composer Steve Brown, which went on to Platinum status in the UK.

Upon hearing her mesmerizing voice, Burt Bacharach invited her to America to sing for him after which he began writing songs for her with lyricist Steven Sater, best known for his work on Broadway.

In 2010, Elton John took note of her unique vocal talents and invited her to be a guest on his BBC “Electric Proms” concert show.

About Rumer Elton says: “We seem to be, in England, capable of bringing these singers out like Adele, Duffy, and Amy Winehouse and Now Rumer. People with extraordinary voices. They don’t come along that often and then you get one that comes along like Rumer’s. Just extraordinary, a beautiful voice. She’s going to be a huge star.”

Most of this history (and Rumer herself for that matter) is unknown to most Americans. Though hardly known here, she’s a star in the U.K.

The concept album, Boys Don’t Cry was released last May both in the U.K. and America, but so far it hasn’t made much of an impression here for reasons that will become obvious as you continue reading.

The concept is an album of songs by 70s singer-songwriters produced, arranged and performed pretty much in that era’s style. Unlike in the U.K. where there is simply “music” that’s consumed and enjoyed by the masses across wide musical and demographic terrains, America is far more segmented and isolated. While in the U.K. a strong interest in popular music seems to last a lifetime for a large segment of the population, in America, it seems to taper off and/or die when people hit 30. The musical tastes of America's young tend to be far more limited.

Therefore, finding an audience in America for an artist like Rumer is difficult. She’s the antithesis of say, Katy Perry for instance. She doesn’t shriek, she’s not salacious and she fits neatly into what might be called “easy listening”—not that there’s anything wrong with that if it’s done right as it is here.

The song choices are inspired beginning with Jimmy Webb’s “P.F. Sloan”, which has been covered by Jackson Browne and Jennifer Warnes among others. It’s a tribute the songwriter P.F. Sloan who wrote “Eve of Destruction” for Barry McGuire, “You Baby” for The Turtles and “Secret Agent Man” for Johnny Rivers among so many others. He subbed for Dean Torrence on “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena” and was a session guitarist with “The Wrecking Crew”—L.A.s crack studio session group.

The song “P.F. Sloan” is an inspired choice to commence an album dedicated to great ‘70s singer/songwriters! The other covers include tunes by Paul Williams, Hall and Oates, Todd Rundgren, Stephen Bishop (the guy whose guitar Belushi smashed on the frat house steps in “Animal House”), Isaac Hayes, John Sebastian, Townes Van Zandt, Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane, Richie Havens, Terry Reid and Neil Young.

The songs are superb of course—musically varied, achingly melodic, meticulously minor key and chosen to suit Rumer’s soothing yet somehow forlorn voice. Even Sebastian’s chipper “Welcome Back” (best known after it was adapted as the theme song for “Welcome Back Cotter”), takes on an air of wistfulness, while the closer, Neil Young’s “A Man Needs a Maid,” which is all about that sadness, needs no amplification in that department.

The guitar/bass/drum-based arrangements are subtle and sumptuous by today’s threadbare standards, particularly in their use of soothing background singers and the recording, though clearly digital, also pays tribute to the era. Rumer’s voice is particularly well-recorded and like good chicken “minimally processed” but definitely not “air chilled”!

Bob Ludwig mastered, Chris Bellman cut lacquers at Bernie Grundman’s and Pallas pressed so clearly Atlantic wanted the best for this Rumer album so that perhaps Rumer’s American inroad might be with the so-called “audiophile community.”

Yes, an air of nostalgia permeates this album but great songs are great songs and this album is packed with twelve of them, some of which you’ll know and probably a few of which you won’t. The insert sheet lists for each song the original artist, the album, the album’s release date and label and the composer, which during the singer/songwriter era usually was the performer.

Whether it’s Hall and Oates’ “Sarah Smile,” Townes Van Zandt’s “Flyin’ Shoes” or Todd Rundgren’s “Be Nice to Me,” the songs will resonate strongly with those familiar with them and for younger listeners perhaps help open pathways to great music from an era that seems like yesterday for some and “olden days” for others.

Put this on late at night and you’re sure to sit enthralled from beginning to end both because of the pop songwriting quality that seems to be in deep decline today and because Rumer’s voice is so magically in tune with the lyrical intent.