1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 115. Laura Nyro – Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968)

 

From the album cover and the title, I was kind of expecting something folky, maybe a bit Joan Baez, a bit Joni Mitchell. What we actually get are some bright and breezy R&B tracks, with a few slow numbers (e.g. Lonely Women, Poverty Train), with some blues, soul, and jazz elements thrown in (when I came to proofread these I’d mistyped this as “jazzlements”, which also works). Often in the same song – Nyro likes a tempo change, but she makes them work.

Several things stand out on further research – Nyro died far too young, aged 49. The whole album is an original composition. She worked with Barbara Streisand, was idolised by Elton John, and is claimed as an inspiration for artists such as Kate Bush and Tori Amos. To me, it sounded very close to Carole King, and Nyro’s biggest hit was with a King song.

Her voice is gorgeous, although I’ve noticed that listening with ear-buds sometimes when female singers belt out the high notes it can be quite a painful experience. Fortunately, unlike Joan Baez, Nyro doesn’t leap to them suddenly. Very nice instrumentation too. I don’t think, for me, any tracks stood out above the others, I think I will remember Nyro more as the artist than for any particular track. A few weeks after listening to this I heard Lonely Women played on the radio and I shouted out "Laura Nyro!" much to everybody's confusion.