(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Leslie Phillips came to music at a very young age through the Church: her first four albums (for Word) are religious in nature (especially the fourth, The Turning, from 1987). She then married T-Bone Burnett, changed her name to Sam Phillips, and from that moment her career took off. The Indescribable Wow (Virgin, 1989), arranged in an almost baroque yet acoustic style, revealed a rocker capable of songs like Holding On To The Earth and What You Don't Want To Hear, even if much of the album is diluted by soporific ballads.
Cruel Inventions (Virgin, 1991) is a more cohesive and mature album, filled by Phillips with finely crafted compositions such as Go Down, Raised On Promises, and Where The Colors Don't Go, presenting her as a cultured Kate Bush and a fatal Marianne Faithfull grappling with existential dilemmas. Backed by collaborators such as Van Dyke Parks, Elvis Costello, and Marc Ribot, she produces songs of refined taste, well orchestrated and well sung, but often lacking backbone.
The arrangements of the songs on Martinis And Bikinis (Virgin, 1994) evoke a more baroque form of psychedelia. The melodies of Baby I Can't Please You and Strawberry Road anchor pained philosophical reflections. I Need Love is perhaps the most original song of her career.
Omnipop (Virgin, 1996) presents an even more sophisticated singer, although the compositions seem lighter and more casual (Entertainment, Animals On Wheels, Faster Pussycat To The Library).
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Zero Zero Zero (Virgin, 1999) is a well-chosen anthology.
Fan Dance (Nonesuch, 2001), Sam Phillips'
first studio album in five years, is the definite farewell to the
alt-rock format that she championed in the 1990s.
Five Colors, Love Is Everywhere I Go, Wasting My Time
are intimate, delicate confessions of an innocent, childish soul.
Thanks to a stellar cast of pianists and guitarists
(and string arrangements by Van Dyke Parks), Phillips does not need
a rock band at all.
She further journeyed inside her tormented psyche on
A Boot And A Shoe (Nonesuch, 2004), another unedulcorated confession
although not as spartan as Fan Dance. In fact, behind the apparent
calm and simplicity, the sounds are organized with manic precision, and the
voice is coupled to the arrangements
(T Bone Burnett, Jim Keltner, Marc Ribot)
in an almost scientific manner.
This is both a mature and profound collection, and a calculated emotional
charade. One does not exist without the other. Far from being artificial, the
latter is a skill that simply augments the former. In the end, the album appears
to be both spontaneous and carefully, lovingly crafted.
This is perhaps her richest album ever, boasting
I Dreamed I Stopped Dreaming, Reflecting Light, How to Quit, Infiltration, One Day Late.
Don't Do Anything (2008), the first album not produced by ex-husband
T-Bone Burnett since 1987, featured Little Plastic Life and
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us but hardly changed the format of her
music, that remained superficial and nonchalant.
Phillips overcame the music industry with her "Long Play" website that released
music to subscribers only. The resulting music was offered on
five EPs and the album Cameras in the Sky (2010).
Solid State (2011) compiles material from the five EPs and from
Cameras in the Sky.
