Kicks is a 2019 studio album by American singer–songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. The collection of cover versions received positive reviews from critics. The collection of songs incorporates jazz, pop, and rock music influences and was Jones' second album recorded with a group of New Orleans–based musicians.
Contents
Reception
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Kicks received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 70 out of 100 from our critic scores. Editors at AllMusic rated this album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Mark Deming writing that "even when the material is familiar, Jones inarguably finds something very much her own in this material" and that the music "feels richly Southern in its comfortably laid back but impassioned tone and in the loose precision of the arrangements". In Glide Magazine, Matthew Barton writing that this album synthesizes Jones' previous covers releases and "Kicks seem to take its lead from all of these records, but perhaps more than any of them it seems to sit more snugly alongside Jones’ own material". Will Hodgkinson of The Times rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, calling it an "appealingly lived-in set of covers" where "she sounds more effortlessly cool than ever".
Track listing
"Bad Company" (Simon Kirke and Paul Rodgers) – 5:52
"My Father's Gun" (Elton John and Bernie Taupin) – 4:18
"Lonely People" (Catherine Peek and Dan Peek) – 3:18
"Houston" (Lee Hazlewood) – 3:04
"You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You" (James Cavanaugh, Russ Morgan, and Larry Stock) – 2:22
"Nagasaki" (Mort Dixon and Harry Warren) – 1:59
"Mack the Knife" (Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill) – 3:19
"Quicksilver Girl" (Steve Miller) – 3:39
"The End of the World" (Sylvia Dee and Arthur Kent) – 4:01
"Cry" (Churchill Kohlman) – 4:08
Personnel
Rickie Lee Jones – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, acoustic piano, electric piano, Wurlitzer, tambourine, hand percussion, vocals, production
Bruce Barielle – mastering
Doug Belote – drums
Gina R. Binkley – design
John Culbreth – trumpet
Ian Bowman – tenor saxophone
Mike Dillon – vibraphone, junk drum kit, concert bells, tambourine, congas, concert bass drum, timpani, percussion, snaps, claps, hand percussion, production
David Easley – pedal steel guitar
Nick Ellman – baritone saxophone
John Gross – sousaphone
Cliff Hines – guitar
Peregrine Honig – illustration
Nathan Lambertson – bass guitar, Moog Opus, synth bass, upright bass
Tiffany Lamson – backing vocals
Andre Michot – accordion
Louis Michot – fiddle, production on "My Father's Gun"
Michael Napolitano – mixing
Aurora Nealand – clarinet, backing vocals
John Singleton – upright bass
Zack Smith – photography
