Far from ordinary or commonplace...
First became aware of Company of Thieves when they made their television debut on Carson Daly's show earlier this year, when they performed "Oscar Wilde", and I was immediately fascinated by the explosive performance by singer Genevieve Schatz. Then saw them Philadelphia's NBC affiliate, where they performed "Pressure" which was a bit more toned down, but still made this viewer take notice of the upbeat sound of this group.
Ordinary Riches 
is the debut album from Company of Thieves, an indie rock trio based in Chicago. Genevieve Schatz does the vocals, backed up by guitarist Marc Walloch and drummer Mike Ortiz. The most noticeable quality of this album is that it doesn't sound like a debut offering. There's not a track where the trio doesn't sound like they're quite polished, and really have their act together. After listening to the album it's quite apparent that Company of Thieves is not the stereotypical "girl singer with a backing band" type of group. The songs were all composed by Genevieve Schatz and Mark Walloch, and it's good to hear such good, originally material being performed so well.
They won the New York Songwriter's Circle contest in 2007 for "Oscar Wilde," and it will probably be known as their signature song for some time to come. The album was initially released almost two years ago, and it's getting quite a bit of attention since it's been re-released on the Wind-Up Records label.
Genevieve's voice is outstanding, and she has a wide variety of vocal styles that seem to express many different emotions. She always sounds pitch perfect and she sings full out. Her expressions range from buoyant confidence to almost haunting. For this listener, she seemed to be able to express the same upbeat optimism as found in Regina Spektor's Begin To Hope album, especially as heard in Regina's "Better" track. Yet there's also a small bit of Fiona Apple's occasional anxiety, perhaps even a bit of true angst, as found on the latter's Extraordinary Machine. Listen to Genevieve's voice and lyrics in "Pressure" and see what I mean. I've posted their new song "Oscar Wilde" here in my videos.
There's not a bad or even mediocre song to be found on this offering from the group. The beginning track is "Old Letters" and the final is "New Letters." Between these two are a series of excellent songs that seem to make up the contents of a most interesting vocal book. All three musicians perform as a cohesive, polished unit, perhaps due to the excellent production, engineering and mixing by Sean O'Keefe.
I have the CD version of this album, and the liner as not only all of the lyrics, but some interesting photographs that are credited to Wallo Villacorta, with the band photographs done by Ray Lego.
The liner closes with the following quote:
Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
~ Oscar Wilde
That sounds quite appropriate for this excellent debut re-release on the Wind-up Records label, and this listener must admit to be quite taken by Genevieve Schatz's amazing voice. I'll be following Company of Thieves to see what they come up with next. The group is currently on tour, so look out for them.
Technorati tags: company of thieves, ordinary riches, oscar wilde, genevieve schatz, indie, lexidiem, jargontalk, buzznet
