Jenee Halstead’s latest CD release Disposable Love cannot be easily pigeonholed into any one musical category. Halstead’s lyrical vision might put her in the same class as the better singer-songwriters. Halstead, a longtime presence in the greater-Boston scene, knows how to layer instruments together to arrive at her preferred mode of expression. Thick bass and synthesizers on this album might make her music feel like some of the different subgenres of modern music. Some of the groove and horns might remind of R&B and her vocal work sometimes sounds like old school soul and sometimes a bit more modern. Through every track, though, the main instrument is her voice, no matter how much the support players strut.
Halstead’s voice seems to come out of the heavens on opening track “I’ll Be Your Man,” co-written with producer Dave Brophy. With a smooth, thick, thumping groove and a brittle melody line beneath her voice, Halstead soothes the listener’s soul with her voice as the slow boat of sorrowful tone tugs the song forward. Her vocal line contrasts brilliantly with the heavier backdrop and a forlorn electric guitar rain dropping notes around her. The support musicians develop a wider sound as they go along and it perfectly surrounds Halstead’s sharp, pretty voice.
“Madness,” another co-written with Brophy, finds Halstead singing, prettily, smoothly, over a nimble groove and a trickling melody. Her voice is the main melody instrument here. She coos and sings her way forward with a momentum that is difficult to describe in words. It has to be heard when she makes things move with her vocal assertions. Some trippy, funky keyboards and skittering drum fills keep a twitchy support beneath Halstead as her voice travels through the sonic landscape with a large presence an unstoppable force.
With a bit of swagger, Halstead takes her time unfurling her soulful vocal here on “In The Seams,.” co-written by Susan Cattaneo. A myriad of instruments sweeps the song along as this singer finesses the landscape with her vigorous twists and turns in her vocal melody line. Her sustains show her voice to be a fine tuned instrument in and of itself and she is quite actually going toe to toe with a big heavy horn that darts in and around her and she holds her own.
“Heart Light” gets more of an R&B feel from some twitchy guitar riffing and an audacious groove. While the support players strut their stuff, especially a daring bass guitar and bossy percussionist, Halstead asserts her vocal over the multitude of notes with the way she teaks her voice for this number. She belt out her chorus with an assured glide, like a glider plane pilot maneuvering her way through a changing terrain, maintaining a stable presence as she swerves over newer challenges from her support players.
Written by Billy Bragg, “Levi Stubbs” features Halstead singing low, quiet, and pretty over a hefty low end, slapping drum work, and a trippy line of synthesized thinness. Halstead’s vocal, strong in presence, gentle in application, moves every one of those many moving parts. It’s uncanny how she stays mellow while maintaining such a force of nature by just being there.
“Mother,” another co-written with Cattaneo, describes how a mother’s world has been upended. It does not matter who or whose mother was upended. Halstead perfectly captures the feeling of seeing one’s mother swept away by harsh weather. Halstead delivers the emotive goods without seeming to try. She moves her voice forward, slow but persistent in her delivery. Her voice, with its spikes in dynamics, expression, coos, everything really, makes her , again, seem like a larger than life presence here.
Co-written with Brophy and Cattaneo, “Skin” pops into the listener’s consciousness on the strength of a vigorous groove and a sudden keyboard. With this juicy backdrop swaying, Halstead comes in pure and simple, gently asserting her smooth, pretty voice. Maintaining and fostering a circular sensation right into the chorus keeps this song vital as Halstead injects her special voice and the instrumentalists keep their waves of sound coming so she can work her voice over them.
Title track “Disposable Love” is a solid pop-rock song, though it is a song of mourning. She sings of how easily she could be replaced by one she truly loves. She asserts her vocal in waves of prowess, letting her dollops of pretty voice dot the sorrowful landscape with something sweet to contrast the sobering reality of her lyrics. Her vocal injections and a spanking push from her support players as well as some unusual background sounds and effects help keep the listener immersed in the claustrophobic world of post-relationship doldrums.
“Solitary People” takes inventory of the single life. Halstead’s voice is coolly self-restrained. That makes her admission of loneliness more sincere as her girlish vocal hovers naturally over a hip, shaky electric guitar melody. With other musical trappings, this song could easily play in a honky-tonk during a love scene. It is naturally tender, vocals and instruments both, and it could likely go over well at Halstead’s live shows with only voice and an acoustic six string.
Closing track “Brother Is A River” is comprised of many fine instrumental touches. Keyboards layer it with soul as Halstead sings with unaffected purpose. She moves this one, again, with the force of her musical personality. Smooth, direct, and in a hovering mood, like a cloud above another cloud, like the ebullient horn line beneath her voice. Halstead creates a good home for her voice here and her voice is just as ably expressive as the bunching of instruments around her.
Produced by Brophy and engineered by Andy Pinkham at Revolution Sound Studio in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Jenee Halstead achieves a great deal on this Disposable Love album. Her voice, always crystal clear, maintains a shine, a brilliance, no matter which musical direction she travels in a given song. Andrew Stern plays guitar, Joe McMahon plays bass, and Brophy plays drums, synthesizers, and sings backing vocals. Ray Gennari arranged horns on “In the Seams.” Justin Walter played electric trumpet and trumpet on “Brother is a River.” Halstead’s gift for putting instruments and voice together is uncannily good and this disc is just something every New England music fan needs to purchase immediately.
