At Summer’s end, acclaimed songwriter/singer Sam Phillips released Push Any Button, her first physical album of new material since 2008′s Don’t Do Anything. The album was recorded by Eric Gorfain (The Section Quartet) in an old Charlie Chaplin-era bungalow near downtown Los Angeles. Push Any Button was produced by Phillips (with additional production by Gorfain) and mixed by him and Grammy winner Mike Piersante (Raising Sand, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, etc. Push Any Button is out now on Littlebox Recordings. I hope you’d take this opportunity to cover via feature or album review. Let me know if you need the music. The media response has been overwhelming to date, and continues to pour forth. I’m including a sampling of the latest below.
Push Any Button is Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Sam Phillips’ tenth studio album. Featuring musicians Jay Bellerose (drums), Jennifer Condos (bass), Benmont Tench (piano), Eric Gorfain (guitar/violin), The Section Quartet (strings) and Dave Palmer (piano), this collection of songs is Sam’s impressionistic take on pop music from the 20th century, but with an odd twist.
Katie Hasty/Hitfix.com
Sam Phillipswinds back the clock with “Can’t See Straight,” an old-school pop tune about the confusion that happens whenever you fumble through unfamiliar territory, blazing your own trail instead of following the person in front of you. It’s the sort of song Carole King might’ve whipped up in 1960, after an all-night powwow with one of her Brill Building co-writers. The hooks are big. The vocals are sultry. The jazz chords are straight out of a forgotten girl-group single.
But the lyrics are different. For starters, nothing rhymes. One line (“life circles around and you can’t see straight”) shows up five times, and the others are a bit incongruent, like misshapen puzzle pieces. The whole song is about a person who feels like a misshapen puzzle piece, though, and it makes the argument that we’re supposed to celebrate those rough edges, not sand them down.
For Phillips – whose career includes several years as a Christian artist, a long-running collaboration with T-Bone Burnett, a handful of Beatlesesque pop albums, a pair of mostly-acoustic folk albums, a role as a sexy terrorist in Die Hard with a Vengeance, and a seven-year gig writing background music for The Gilmore Girls – fitting in has never been a priority. She’s striking because she doesn’t fit in. That’s what good artists do; they avoid the obvious and welcome the unexpected.
“Can’t See Straight” is a rallying cry for people who spend their lives chasing after something uncertain. It’s a reminder that beauty can’t be planned. Put more simply: if you wanna make a difference, you’ve gotta be different.
“I wish “Can’t See Straight” had been my first song,” Phillips says. “It would have been good to have carried it in my pocket like a lucky penny. To remind me that a life spent making music and art is rarely going to look good on paper. To remind me that beauty and love are out of control… that they rise from chaos and ashes every day, whether we see it or not.”
Andrew Leahey/AmericanSongwriter.com 9/16
After releasing nearly four dozen songs via her own online subscription service, Push Any Button represents singer/songwriter Sam Phillips’ first offering via a physical format in almost six years. In truth, it represents just the latest shift in a prolific career that began in the Christian music market (under the name Leslie Phillips), accelerated under the umbrella of two major label affiliations, and eventually found her operating as an indie artist. Produced primarily by Phillips herself, it also finds her shifting her stance as she emulates the playful pop of the mid ’60s. After the unexpected rumble that precedes the aptly titled opener “Pretty Time Bomb,” the songs which follow convey a fanciful attitude and an easy, affable sway. While “When I’m Alone,” “Speaking Of Pictures” and “You Know I Won’t” provide obvious examples of a giddier motif, the lyrics accompanying “No Time Like Now” express that optimistic attitude best. “There’s no time like this time, there’s no time like now,” Phillips declares. That certainly applies to the timing of this wonderful new record. -
Lee Zimmerman/M Music Musicians September
Sam Phillips – who once played a Jeremy Irons’ bloodthirsty, knife-wielding psycho girlfriend in the Bruce Willis macho vehicle “Die Hard with a Vengeance” – certainly knows how to cut to the heart of a matter.
Starting her recording career as a contemporary Christian music singer, the 51-year-old Phillips found her true calling writing sexy, sophisticated pop songs. After a series of fine pop albums that primarily fell on deaf ears, she experimented with subscription-only online releases (“The Long Play” series, which comprised five EPs and an album, released from 2009 to 2011) and now she’s back with her first physical disc of material in five years.
With ten songs clocking in a hair shy of 30 minutes, “Push Any Button” is a breezy and inspired folk-flavored foray into matters of the heart. Lean, sometimes mean and always pristine, “Push Any Button” features sparse arrangements built around acoustic guitars, subtle electric guitar, bass, piano and drums, as well as a few tunes with a string quartet and one with horns added in for good measure. But it’s her smoky, alluring voice, biting wit and quirky sense of melody that always captivates us and permeates to the surface..
On the anti-twerking ditty “Pretty Time Bomb,” Phillips skillfully skewers a would-be pop star whose every move and gesture is calculated and staged for maximum, jaw-dropping effect. With more insight and intelligence expressed in one line than most pop artists will show in their whole catalog, Phillips skillfully predicts the song’s unnamed target’s untimely demise, with the accompaniment of fuzzy guitars, booming drums and doo-wop-inspired background vocals. Disgusted at what pop stardom has become, Phillips unmercifully snaps, “The world is tired of your act.” Take that Miley Cyrus.
Phillips basks in the glow of her partner’s love on “All Over Me.” She passionately declares, “It’s like walking under starlight in the daytime/When your insides are brighter than the light/Drained the emptiness that filled me/The dark is gone//I’m not holding on to anything.” Emotionally rich and sonically stellar, the proceedings start off as an intimate, barebones confession and slowly develop into a fully realized cathartic purging of the soul. Her stellar words and sensual delivery are punctuated by scruffy acoustic guitar strums and an imaginative use of horns that serve as strategically placed exclamation points on Phillips’ testimony on the healing powers of amour.
On the celebratory breakup song “When I’m Alone,” Phillips realizes that she would rather take her chances on her own than be trapped in a loveless relationship with no merciful end in sight. With its lively, rockabilly groove accentuated by flighty strings, Phillips vows, “I took back my heart and said goodbye/Though I will always love you/My time for cryin’ is through/There’s a new life opening wide.” Not only is she not ready to give up on love, Phillips sounds like she ready to conquer the world.
Phillips continues a relationship in her subconsciousness long after her lover’s death on the poetic, poignant and passionate opus, “See You In My Dreams.” Conveying deep longing and regret, Phillips shows her uncanny kinship with another smart lady of pristine pop opuses, Aimee Mann. In an intimate, conversational style, Phillips reveals, “Went to places you lived/Went to the places you died/Tracing the fuse/Long story of a short life/With windows broken through.” Vibrant strings alongside aggressive acoustic guitar strums capture the tempestuous nature of the heart-wrenching narrative without hitting the listener over the head with it.
From the playful to the profound, from the cutesy to the clever, Phillips rattles a series of tweet-worthy sentiments and life-lessons while revealing the dark recesses of her heart on the cool-sounding “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You.” The sheer randomness of Phillips’ cut and paste musings seem to make perfect sense once you put them in context with an unresolved relationship that has gone astray. Revealing more of her psyche than the listener might initially pick up, Phillips ponders, “The extraction of pleasure is done with just a few words,” “The dead are alive, sometimes more than the living” and “Your eyes could take anyone.” Accompanied by jangly guitars, hand-claps and whistling background vocals, Phillips discloses that she regrets most of all that her estranged lover didn’t get to know her deepest, most guarded secrets.
Despite the indiscretions of her two-timing lover taking its toll on her nerves, Phillips refuses to give up on love on the irresistible, honky-tonk rocker, “You Know I Won’t.” Declaring her independence and refusing to be a victim any longer, Phillips sings, “You’ve been so cold/You’ve been so rough/But I’m not giving up on love/You know I won’t.” Emphasizing her voice’s natural twang more so than usual, Phillips’ sassy delivery and sardonic wit meshes with a rockabilly guitar jangle and feisty fiddle playing.
Not only is this a confident stab at country, with the right marketing push and a little luck, this could be a bona fide country hit for her or someone who’s smart enough to cover it. While Phillips’ lover is doing everything in his power to push her away, this song will stay with the listener long after it is over.
Phillips comes to the realization that she can’t change and, in turn, she has no right to try to change her lover on the album’s emotionally rich closer, “Can’t See Straight.”
Confessing all her shortcomings, idiosyncrasies and nervous ticks that have helped carry her through life, Phillips tenderly croons, “I never could go with the crowd/Even though they seemed to know where they were going/Years and years and/Miles and miles of/Taking the high/Taking the low road/My mind circles around and I can’t see straight.”
She also has an epiphany that trying to alter her lover’s behavior was wrong and she apologizes for trying to do just that in the telling line, “I took a turn for the worse/When I tried to straighten little things about you/Who knows if you might need those bits and pieces/Down the road.”
Accompanied by a lively mix of saloon piano and strutty acoustic guitars, Phillips concludes, “The world is so beautiful for no reason at all.” The same too can be said about this record but, unlike the world, Phillips gives us plenty of reasons for that beauty.
Craig Semon/Worcester Telegram 9/27
The pop music of the late ’60s and early ’70s served as the catalyst for Push Any Button, the first physical album of new music from Sam Phillips in five years. Phillips remains a sharp-eyed observer of the world at large and matters of the heart.
“Pretty Time Bomb” in an unflinching look at the corrosive power of celebrity-think of Lindsay Lohan or Amanda Bynes. “It’s easy to change/But harder to change your life,” Phillips tartly sings in her husky baritone. With a string arrangement that conjures up a mixture of wistfulness and melancholy, “See You in Dreams” recalls the work of John Lennon with its self-examination. “When I’m Alone” is an upbeat song about the pleasures of solitude and self-improvement.
“Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You” recounts an acerbic breakup propelled by a striking rhythm and melody. At a running time of just over 29 minutes, Push Any Button
recalls vinyl albums of the ’60s, but Phillips is smart enough to make her points without a wasted note.
Tom Wilk/Icon September
Sam Phillips’ Push Any Button is a contemporary renewal of the sincere and simple melodies that exemplified the sixties’ and seventies’ popular music; a breezy, toe-tapping twenty-nine minutes that draws ten well-developed songs out of a well-worn hat. Her songwriting, which has always been a comfortable blend between the adult alternative chamber pop of R.E.M., the easy Americana folk rock of Wilco, and the twinkle-eyed country of Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks, continues in a warm vein of traditionalism that makes for an easy, light, and worthwhile listen every time.
Button sparkles with a certain sheen of being at home with one’s origins that is both infectious and charming: songs call to mind the bouncy, rollicking, early British-Invasion era sound of Beatles (“You Know I Won’t”), and the poignant, poised rock-and-roll of Buddy Holly (“When I’m Alone”). Some recall the American countryside, some would find themselves well-placed in a well-lit bar, others on a little bandstand at a community fair. Phillips’ own renditions on the quintessential elements of rock-and-roll and singer-songwriter pop traditions cover a comfortable, inclusive spread – pleasing when set against its oeuvre, and yet entirely fulfilling from a contemporary perspective.
Push Any Button is the perfect record for this point in Phillips’ career – an album that floats along unambiguously, straddling the line between ethereal instrumentation and tangible personality. Set against her previous albums – the visceral, skeletal-sounding philosophies of Fan Dance, or the mystical, introspective ambiance of Martinis & Bikinis – this is an album that sounds present, lively, and personal, with Phillips set at the foreground. Despite occasionally finding a somber reflective nature, she sounds ultimately well-tempered by her years, and as youthful and intimate and as ready for love as ever. She said of this forthcoming release, that while she doesn’t quite know where it came from, or what compelled her to make it, that “every time I listen to what I’ve done, it makes me really happy.”
There does not need to be evocative, transcendental grandeur for a work of art to exist – simply a connection to what is real and meaningful, and Phillips has no shortage of that. For a singer-songwriter, such freedom of expression is a hallmark of maturity, and shows comprehension of her own condition and gravitas as an artist. The lyrics are often self-directed and self-focused, speaking about independence in relationships, solitude, self-acceptance, an appreciation for life. The graceful composition of the production means that the focus is pushed towards her vocals against the drive of her guitar, and with an adroit piano or well-felt string instrumentation. Often live-sounding, pleasingly ramshackle, and rhythmically percussive, it immediately calls to mind the pleasant, fresh bounce of KT Tunstall’s Eye to the Telescope.
This has deeper roots than most recent albums, though. On tracks like the moving, wispy-eyed “See You In Dreams”, and the superbly timeless little interlude of “Going”, which feature her vocals set against a string quartet – or the bluesy guitar wah-wahs of the playfully defiant “You Know I Won’t” – there is a certain recognition that what you are listening to has conscious strands of Lennon and McCartney woven delicately into it. Confident in its own influences, and drawing easily upon them, this album is sure to be a hit for those that are willing to give it a chance. This is an intensely personal and truly accessible effort from someone who has come a long way in her career.
Danny Dyer/ListenBeforeYouBuy.com 8/14
Sam Phillips has been a master of reinvention over a platform- and genre-spanning career as well as a pioneer in audience-participation music models. Here, she talks about her new album and evolution of both independent and corporate-backed music.
“It’s easy to change your name but hard to change your life,” sings Sam Phillips in the song “Pretty Time Bomb,” one of ten slices of hard fought wisdom from her just released album, Push Any Button. And Phillips should know a thing or two about change, her career path is a textbook story of change and reinvention, factors she has continued to embrace since was signed to Christen label Myrrh in 1983, under her given name, Leslie Phillips. Since then, she has skittered along from major labels to indie labels before arriving at her present status as a self-sustaining hands-on artist with no outside label support.
“It’s a good place to be,” Phillips proclaims over the phone from her Los Angeles home, “or at least a place to try and get to, it’s more of a goal!”
In 1987, two major changes occurred; she met T Bone Burnett and began recording as Sam Phillips to delineate her split with the Christian pop industry. “It’s kind of a classic showbiz thing,” says Phillips, “but it’s not so easy to start over and recreate yourself. Those demons catch up with you. But I admire people who manage to do it.”
Those demons were best exorcised in the highly literate lyrics Phillips wrote over a string of critically acclaimed Virgin Records releases she made with Burnett, beginning in 1998 with The Indescribable Wow, followed by Cruel Inventions, Martinis and Bikinis, and finally 1996′s Omnipop (It’s Only a Flesh Wound Lambchop). Phillips says that the two encouraged each other’s natural tendencies to flout the conventions of music industry groupthink, defy categorization and challenge standard practices.
“There was a spirit that we both had together,” says Phillips, “a kind of ‘us against the world’ in the music business. It was sort of that thing, where we were gonna stick to our guns and be really stubborn.”
Inevitably that spirit found Phillips and Burnett leaving Virgin Records in 2001, for the relatively more artist friendly confines of Warner’s Nonesuch imprint, where they enjoyed more critical success with Fan Dance, and A Boot And A Shoe. Also at this time, Phillips made a lateral move to music for television, working on Gilmore Girls with Amy Sherman-Palladino, with whom she recently reunited on the short-lived Bunheads.
“I never thought that I would do television,” says Phillips, “and it was rewarding to me because I was working with Amy and I love her writing and her characters.”
After she and Burnett split, Phillips took sole possession of the producer’s chair for her third and final Nonesuch album, Don’t Do Anything, in 2008. The irony was that, by that point, she’d learned to do a lot, and was beginning to do it all.
While some artists have floundered after the death of the old music industry model, Phillips and a handful of others, such as Marshall Crenshaw and Kristen Hersh, have actually flourished by enlisting their fan bases in a subscription-based marketing model. In October of 2009, before the dawn of Kickstarter, Phillips launched her own subscription plan, The Long Play. Fans were charged a blanket fee of $52.00 for a year of music, comprising five EP releases and one full-length album. It was fun, interactive and mysterious in that even Phillips herself had no idea what that music would sound like. The subscribers made a leap of faith and came along for the journey as the artist created her art.
She soon realized that what she lost in terms of lavish budgets and massive distribution could be offset by an increase in profits and the satisfaction of direct personal engagement with her subscribers.
“I definitely wasn’t the first to do a subscription-based thing, and I won’t be the last,” says Phillips, “but I think I had just reached the point with record companies where I’d had my limit; what I was doing, business wise, was not sustainable for me. And it wasn’t emotionally sustainable either, because when you feel like you’re putting your heart and soul into something, investing your own time and energy, and funds, and then the other end wasn’t being held up.”
At the completion of the project, Phillips had created around 44 songs plus exclusive content such as a podcast, behind the scenes photos and videos. She was receiving subscription requests up to the very end, so Phillips took stock of the songs and compiled ten of the songs on Push Any Button, the title of which, says Phillips, connotes a connection to 20th century machines and recording equipment.
“I loved the way they looked,” says Phillips, “old soundboards with all the knobs and buttons. It’s also the connection to a jukebox, because this record was done over a couple of years, I wanted to make every song be a standalone. So it wasn’t a concept album as much as I wanted to do the best record and choose the best songs for a ten-song album. ”
The notion of taking the music straight to the fans was something Phillips had discussed with Burnett back their early days together.
“He told me,” says Phillips, “that when he started as an 18-year-old kid back in Fort Worth, Texas, he and some other friends bought a studio and a record lathe, in a building that also housed a radio station. They would record the music, cut the vinyl, then they’d take it up to a radio station and the DJ would put it on the radio in Fort Worth. I loved that story and it’s such a great model for what I wanted to do with The Long Play. To include people a little bit more in the process, and to do it quickly. So we’re doing it, but it’s harder to ship physical products, and it’s a bigger headache financially. But it’s important to keep moving, pushing ahead, and trying different things.”
One different thing Phillips is trying, with the vinyl release of Push Any Button, is a series of 100 re-purposed cardboard album sleeves, each hand painted by Phillips, producing one-of-a-kind works of art in themselves. It’s artisanal and analog, making the old new again.
“I took all these orphaned vinyl album covers and I started erasing the images on these things and putting my own collages on them,” says Phillips. “It was a bittersweet kind of experience because it was kind of sad to see these people, with their hopes and dreams, their records abandoned, and the fall of the record business, but then it was fun to take the bones of that and recreate something, make it modern and new, and make it something that would house my vinyl.”
While she salutes the widespread prevalence of crowdfunding, most notably via Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Pledgemusic, or newer strategies such as Jack Conte’s fledgling Patreon site, Phillips isn’t so sure the days of corporate involvement, and investment, are gone for good, or if they even should be.
“It’s really important that we let go of the old record business and the old way of doing things,” says Phillips, “but it’s a really odd line that people have to walk. We might have to let go of this phase that we’re in with Kickstarter and the independents. We have the content for these investors and these corporations, but they need to support us in a more businesslike way.”
Summing up, Phillips believes that we need to revalue, not devalue, the art itself, so that the consumer, not just the rich patrons, understand that artists can’t create big work in a vacuum.
“I just had this discussion,” says Phillips, “where somebody was saying ‘Well, can’t you make music more cheaply nowadays on a laptop?’ and I would say, yes but you can’t really compare that to a room full of musicians with a professional recording engineer and good mics, you can’t really replicate that on GarageBand.”
“When I talk to my daughter, the two things I’ve heard her say that I think are really encouraging are “Mom, I know that if I want to get into music, I’ve gotta change the system. And if I’m gonna change the system, I’ve gotta find a tribe, and people that are in other areas who can help with that.” I think that’s so beautiful, and she’s absolutely right, there is strength in both of those things. She really wants to change things. So, I think it’s a fascinating time to be in the music business, but there are better days ahead.”
Paul Myers/FastcoCreate.com 9/13
Sam Phillips has been at this for a long time; a singer-songwriter who knows the value of taking the time to craft her work to a fine polish. On Push Any Button, her latest effort, she does just that. This acoustic guitar-driven album has an understated production that at moments, feels claustrophobic, but it works to a successful effect. And her voice is pleasing and alluring.
“Pretty Time Bomb” is a nifty, catchy pop opener; “All Over Me” is a hypnotic, sultry and brassy track. “When I’m Alone” chugs along nicely with tight harmonies and good melodic structure. “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You” is the album’s highlight – it almost reminds me of the Brian Jonestown Massacre (!); a strong, dramatic track. “You Know I Won’t” is a countrified motor with a sing-song feel. “No Time Like Now” is another highlight; a warm, well-delivered piece.
All in all, a fine album – something to enjoy as the colder evenings come rolling in.
Rob Ross/Popdose.com 9/12
Watching Sam Phillips mature and develop over the years is like watching a tween growing up into something very special. From her early years in Christian Rock, to working with her then husband, T Bone Burnett, then being nominated for two Grammy Awards, to pursuing her own style of music in her own folk genre. Some watching and working with her might feel that she is truly driven to prove something to others or herself.
Only one person knows that for sure but as one listens to the lyrics in Push Any Button, she seems to be reinventing herself, or she is having some sort of second birth into evolution. It is ironic that she would be reinventing herself to songs she describes as a nostalgic look of stardom in the 60s and 70s. Sam Phillips is probably doing one thing, and that is having the time of her life. Regardless what Sam is trying to do, Push Any Button seems to convey a satirical message. For whatever reasons Push Any Button takes us back in time.
Listening to “Pretty Time Bomb,” Sam states “the world is tired of your act, black worn internally.” For older readers, we can’t help but think of the popular TV 60′s show “Shindig!”, listening to all those one hit wonders trying to be the next Beatles. It could be reckless second guessing what Sam is trying to convey but as I listen to “Pretty Time Bomb”, it definitely takes me back.
“All Over Me” is another piece of lyrical depth. I love the lyrics “I’m soaked in the light I’ve waited all my life to see… the sincere gifts of those who’ve gone before me pull me up make me forget I want to quit.” Bob Dylan would love this. “All Over Me” says much. Everyone knows how frustrating our lives are at times, but the good news in what “All Over Me” is saying, I’m not done yet. The track also has some added flavor of sax and brass of Alex Budman, Chris Tedesco and Nick Lane. Nicely done.
Then there is “When I’m Alone.” This could be my favorite piece. Listening to it, I can’t help but hear somewhat of an Asian flare from the strings of The Section Quartet. But the Duane Eddy guitar really makes it in the end. Once again, Sam says a lot. Her words can cut like a knife to some, but offer tranquility to others. It is an awesome piece.
“See You In Dreams” is another nicely done piece. The echo harmonies are appropriately done, plus the added strings of The Section Quartet really adds to the melancholic sound. One line reads, “I hide behind my eyes.” Don’t we all.
There are some who might say this album has no direction. Not true. This album simply offers something for everyone in words, music, and production. “Going” is a classic example. It is a unique 3/4 time style waltz with an impressive strings arrangement by Eric Gorfain. He is spot on with this one.
There was also a really nice 70′s guitar sound in “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You.” Was that Mick Ronson? Chris Bruce and Eric Gorfain did a great job.
Then there is the best track of all. “You Know I Won’t” simply rocks. The fusion of rockabilly and folk go so well together. All that is needed are Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and maybe some Les Paul. “No Time Like Now” and “Can’t See Straight” are also nicely done. The bar room piano sound adds to the satire of “Can’t See Straight.” I think they should change the title. I think it should read “Thoughts and Feelings When Washington Talks.”
It is very easy to get excited about Push Any Button. All of the tracks are true to substance. Sam Phillips needs to feel proud of this one. It is clear she does not have to prove anything to anybody, including herself. Push Any Button allows her time to sit back, relax, and make it happen for the next one.
This is Sam Phillips, and she has just pushed my buttons.
Joe Miller/Highnotereviews.tumblr.com
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