The acid pop singer/songwriter born
Leslie Phillips
earned the nonsensical nickname "Sam" as a child; only when she was
recording her debut album did she finally hear of the other, more
renowned
Sam Phillips and learn of his legacy as the founder of Sun Records, the label which launched the careers of
Elvis Presley and
Jerry Lee Lewis.
In retrospect, however, her relative distance from the history and
conventions of pop music may have been in her favor and accounted for
the fresh perspective her work offered; a critic's darling,
Phillips
sold few records, but her songs won widespread praise not only from the
press but also from her fellow performers.
Born in 1962,
Phillips
was raised in Glendale, California. As a child she became fascinated by
philosophy and religion, primarily fundamentalism; she began writing
songs at the age of 14 as an outlet for exploring her Christian beliefs,
as well as for coping with family strife. In 1984, under the name
Leslie Phillips, she released her first LP,
Beyond Saturday Night, on the contemporary Christian label Word. Within the limited framework of the Christian rock community,
Phillips became a star; her records, which also included 1984's
Dancing with Danger and 1985's
Black and White in a Grey World,
regularly sold upwards of 200,000 copies, and she was a tremendous live
draw while touring churches and coffeehouses.
With the aptly titled
The Turning, released in 1987,
Phillips first teamed with producer
T-Bone Burnett, a renowned pop producer who also helmed
Bob Dylan's
voyage into Christianity. After the album's release, she publicly
denounced her label as a right-wing propaganda machine, and announced
her retirement from CCM; disavowing all of her previous work, she
adopted the name
Sam on a permanent basis and, with
Burnett's assistance, landed a contract with Virgin Records. With
Burnett again in the producer's seat, she emerged in 1988 with her secular debut,
The Indescribable Wow,
which earned vast acclaim not only for her powerful vocals, penetrating
lyrics, and gorgeous melodies, but also for the record's lush, Baroque
production.
Phillips and
Burnett married prior to the release of 1991's darker, more experimental
Cruel Inventions, which featured a guest appearance from
Elvis Costello. With 1994's Grammy-nominated
Martinis and Bikinis, her sound flirted closely with
Beatlesque popcraft; the album's finale, a cover of
John Lennon's
"Gimme Some Truth," further drove the comparisons home. After making
her feature film debut in the 1995 blockbuster Die Hard with a
Vengeance,
Phillips returned with 1996's
Omnipop (It's Only a Flesh Wound Lambchop),
another departure which touched upon lounge pop and industrial sounds;
on the song "Slapstick Heart," she even shared songwriting credits with
the members of
R.E.M. Zero Zero Zero: The Best of Sam Phillips followed in early 1999.
In 2001,
Phillips began rethinking her approach to music, and that year she released
Fan Dance, her first album for Nonesuch Records. Produced by
Burnett,
Fan Dance
abandoned the ornate pop sound of their previous work together in favor
of spare and casual semi-acoustic settings. The album was a critical
success, and a similarly styled follow-up,
A Boot and a Shoe, appeared in 2004, followed by
Don't Do Anything
in 2008. After that release she left Nonesuch and began a project
called Long Play, where she spent a year and a half releasing EPs every
two months (five in all) and an album (Cameras in the Sky) at the
project's end in 2011. Along the way she shared videos, outtakes, and
extra tracks on her website, and self-released a compliation of tracks
from the project called
Solid State: Songs from the Long Play.
Around this time she began working on her friend Amy
Sherman-Palladino's new TV show Bunheads, scoring each epsiode, just as
she did on Sherman-Palladino's long-running (2000-2007) show The Gilmore
Girls. At the same time, she also began work on a new album,
Push Any Button, which was released on her own Littlebox label in summer 2013.
Tracklist
| 1 |
Love And Kisses |
0:56
|
| 2 |
Signposts |
2:19
|
| 3 |
Same Rain |
4:11
|
| 4 |
Baby I Can't Please You |
3:30
|
| 5 |
Circle Of Fire |
3:12
|
| 6 |
Strawberry Road |
4:05
|
| 7 |
When I Fall |
5:07
|
| 8 |
Same Changes |
4:44
|
| 9 |
Black Sky |
4:03
|
| 10 |
Fighting With Fire |
3:00
|
| 11 |
I Need Love |
3:39
|
| 12 |
Wheel Of The Broken Voice |
4:00
|
| 13 |
Gimme Some Truth |
3:27 |
