Erdmöbel - "In Den Schuhen Von Aubrey Hepburn (Klavier)". Richard's the man in Germany, and he sent on this beautiful song by Cologne's Erdmöbel. The title translates to "In the shoes of Audrey Hepburn," and I really haven't a clue what it's about. But I'm kind of glad. The piano streams by as Markus Berges (?) sings; drums press with that fine, steady pressure; horns and guitar join in; and the bass says nothing, but you know he's your friend. It's so effortless and wonderful, such a gentle pleasure. Springtime by a fountain, blossomtrees leaving spots of shadow on the courtyard. "If you are feeling fancy-free," he says in English, and that's enough for me - I'd not want this marred by poor lyrics, nor complicated by good ones. Just let those low notes play on against the high ones, let a doe-eyed brunette spin in my mind's eye, let the clouds break, rejoin, and break again. (NB: This is the piano ("klavier") version of the song, from the eponymous EP, and I see that there's a different rendition on his other LPs.) [buy]
Julie Doiron - "The Songwriter". A week ago, I mentioned the new Julie Doiron record, Goodnight Nobody. There were a couple of mp3s on the Jagjaguwar page, both suggesting good things for the album. Well, it's now out - and yes indeedy, there's something special here. A fine return after the slight dip of Heart & Crime, Goodnight Nobody shows more diversity than any Julie Doiron record I can remember. "Tonight Is No Night" is simple and lovely as anything on Desormais (my favourite Doiron album) - guitar and voice and violin. "Good Night" is a twisting, bare-branched instrumental unlike anything she's done before. Herman Düne provide backing on much of the album, and "Snow Falls in November" shows the perfection of the pairing: the little sounds of banjo, the knock-kneed drum, the bloom of Doiron's voice.
But it's "The Songwriter" I wanted to share with you. This is a song that appeared in different form on Doiron's 2003 split with Okkervil River. But where the first version was soft, barren, the Goodnight Nobody recording is noisy, ablaze. It's the juddering return of the Julie Doiron who played with Eric's Trip, who didn't have to worry about waking her kids. Songwriting with spikes of anger, sudden corners and black patches. Most reminiscent of Songs:Ohia's live record, Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasm, "The Songwriter" is a hard, bright, heavy thing, bursting out of a train-tunnel. It could knock me down. [buy] (Oh my; she's going on a US tour with Mt. Eerie. Go go go!)
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Thanks to Kenny, I was able to obtain a clean CD rip of the Kelis/Bjork "Oceania" remix, and I updated the blog mp3 yesterday afternoon. If you missed it, make up for lost time. :)
An interview at The Morning News pointed me on to The Rest Is Noise, a superb musicblog by Alex Ross, classical music critic to The New Yorker.
Readers of Canada's oldest national daily, The Globe and Mail, pick their favourite for the American presidental election.
Bjork w/ Kelis - "Oceania". It's a mix that's head and shoulders above the original, straight hot feeling taking over for ambiguity. It's lovely to hear Kelis's thick alto beside Bjork's sharp pixie theatrics: Bjork sounds less like the crazy lone-wolf aunt, more like the cherished, mysterious friend. I love the burbling remnants of the old production, the Milkshaking new backing. Medulla bored me, and I was frustrated with how barren the original "Oceania" was -- for all the production flourishes, the chanting and bubbles, the song grew tired long before it trudged to its coda. But this - it's full of longing, full of push and not just pull. I swoon at the thought that Bjork's doing something with Beyonce. [from the limited release "Oceania" single]
The Love Letter Band - "I'll Fall in Love". Twinkling bedroom pop from Even the Pretty Girls Take Medicine. It's remarkable how the techniques of bands like The Robot Ate Me, Mt Eerie, Love as Laughter and - yes, this one, - can be used to make such beautiful things. While The Unicorns turn to big red electric guitars, construction paper cut-outs, the Love Letter Band tries to share its truth by singing simple words. Theremin mingles with acoustic guitar, xylophone and marimba. It's a drone of soft melody, waves smoothing to shore. "I'll move to Mexico / I'll let the ocean wash my pain away / I'll let the desert do its job ... With big brown eyes I'll fall in love." [buy]
today i bought silk longjohns.
[3:46pm update: thanks to kenny, have replaced the Kelis radio-rip with a full-quality version.]