As far as I know Laura Nyro is a completely new artist to me. I don't recall ever hearing her name before I started my review project. Now that I've heard some of her work, I wonder if she is the inspiration for the entire sound of the poppy-jazzy-blues genre that largely prevailed in the 60s and continued into the 70s. I'm having trouble coming up with an example, mostly because I don't watch a ton of movies from the 60s and 70s. I guess "Suicide is Painless" (the theme from M*A*S*H) has the sound I'm looking for.
Laura Nyro is much bluesier than that and plays piano. I suppose it might just be that Nyro was just playing the style of music that was popular at the time, but I'd be damned if I haven't heard one of these songs on a movie or TV show before. So I'd like to think that everyone in the late 60s heard a Laura Nyro song and said, "This sounds awesome. We should make our music sound like that!"
Wikipedia classifies Eli And The Thirteenth Confession under the pop genre. I guess that's technically true, but knowing what "pop" stands for in this decade makes it an insult to the great music of past decades. Nyro's music is a well-grounded collection of eclectic style, with contributions from jazzy brass and strings, funky bass, and tight blues arrangements surrounding her electric alto voice. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Eli And The Thirteenth Confession. 4 stars.
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