Throwback Album Review: Supply and Demand by Amos Lee
When an unassuming second-grade teacher from Philadelphia steps up to the microphone and sells nearly half a million albums with his debut, self-titled release, people tend to pay attention. Discovered and given his first big break by Blue Note Records and Norah Jones in 2005, Amos Lee erupted into the spotlight and has now transitioned full-time into the life of a folksy, jazzy, soulful songwriter with all of the pressures of a sophomore album release hanging in the balance.
Written while still on tour promoting his debut, Lee’s second release –Supply And Demand – carries the same Everyman, universal qualities in its 11-track story that propelled him to fame the first time around. This time; however, Lee creates a deeply personal and reflective narrative of a traveling troubadour haunted by the temptations of life on the road. He is a man broken in body and spirit by lost loves and by the loneliness of success.
With the title track, “Supply And Demand,” Lee divulges the trials faced by every musician grinding to keep his spirit amidst the business of it all. With a faster tempo than the rest of the tracks, he masks his voice behind backup vocals and an arrangement of rapid percussions and bass rhythms, symbolizing a sense of loss inside the maze of music stardom.
Another introspective song, “Shout Out Loud,” begins, like most of Lee’s music, with a soft acoustic riff that melts into his raw yet glazed Brett Dennen-esque vocals and builds into a choral crescendo shouting for all the lost, lonely people of the city to unite and celebrate their struggles, acknowledging that “everybody’s got a cross they can claim.”
From there, Lee’s lyrically polished songs spiral further into the world of a man tormented by his infidelities, failed relationships, and addictions. With “Careless,” soft and smoky percussion lead into the pleading vibrato – a vocal balance beam deftly ridden to perfection by Lee – of a traveler interrogating himself about his indiscretions that led to breaking the heart of his one true love.
In “Skipping Stone,” Lee lets his dynamic, crystalline vocals steal the show above a wailing, gospel arrangement of organ and keys as he recounts the sorrows of a lost lover and his almost-prayer for guidance on how to go forward. Again, life on the road keeps the singer running away from the love he desires.
No song summarizes the complete reckless abandon of a man giving into the seductions of fame better than “Night Train.” Lee’s smoky voice, set against the hum of bass and acoustic melodies, almost whispers the tale of a man losing himself to the blackness of the city, “trying to get safely home,” but destined rather to continue his lethal routine of coffee and cocaine. He knows there is purity and beauty out there, but it remains out of his grasp so long as he stays on the musical caravan.
With the skilled ear of former Wallflowers bassist Barrie Maguire producing his second album, Amos Lee masterfully conducts his own train on Supply And Demand with subtle, savory musical arrangements and his signature, quivering tenor leading the way. Blending fact and fiction from his journey on the road to stardom, this soul’s inquisition feels intimately familiar to any listener who searches for grace and love in the midst of life’s trials and tribulations.
