Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
28 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: keane, silenced by the night
Keane: “Silenced by the Night” (2012)
Wistful…epic…widescreen…grandiose.
Keane retreats to familiar territory on their fourth album after some experimentation on 2008’s Perfect Symmetry. It’s for the best–this is exactly what they do well.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/07/23/songs-you-may-have-missed-449/
28 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: magic is a child, nektar
Nektar: “Magic is a Child” (1977)
For all intents and purposes, Roye Albrighton is Nektar. Lead guitar wizard, lead vocalist, main songwriter–he’s everything to the band Ian Anderson is to Jethro Tull.
The last thing Nektar fans would want is an album without Albrighton. But when he left the band for a brief period that’s what they got in 1977’s Magic is a Child. And though it’s the least Nektar-like (and least prog-sounding) album in the band’s catalogue, it’s actually a pretty decent record.
Most of it sounds like straight-ahead 70’s British rock, stripped of the lofty space rock tendencies that are Albrighton’s forte. But the title track sounds a different note entirely. What it sounds like is exactly what it was to me as teenager: a sort of anthem for hyper imaginative, inward-turned, Tolkien-reading misfits.
Oh, and that happens to be a young Brooke Shields on the album’s cover and inner sleeve–speaking of the genre of fantasy.
At the time I was a little boy
All my senses were in bloom
The forests were adventure
There dwelt the legends of my mind
I was the keeper of the golden key
I made all the rules
I only had to dream to create the scene
Magic is a child
Imagination is alive
Magic is imagination
A child is alive
How the trees were so high
The cheese in the sky
Were part of my imagination
I was goblins and elves
With small mushroom shelves
As Brothers Grimm would tell their stories
Opening my eyes in the morning I would see
Patterns in the trees making shapes that were a
Face to me
In those tireless times
And those carefree lines
That we draw ourselves
But they’re never kept
I know magic is a child
Imagination is alive
Magic is imagination
A child is alive
Magic is a child
Imagination is alive
Magic is a child
Alive as a child’s imagination
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2021/11/11/songs-you-may-have-missed-716/
23 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: san fermin, sonsick
San Fermin: “Sonsick” (2013)
Quoting Carmel Hold at WFUV:
It starts with a beat. Just one, before a woman begins singing over a simple rhythm about a hopeless case and a resolve to love. Then comes another voice and horns — harmonizing, swelling, building. A full minute goes by before “Sonsick” practically explodes in a burst of musical euphoria and lyrical heartbreak. The stop-you-in-your-tracks song is by San Fermin, and it’s irresistible. The voices belong to singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, who lead another rising Brooklyn band in Lucius. San Fermin is the brainchild of Yale composition grad Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who recruited Wolfe and Laessig to help bring his project to fruition. While “Sonsick” infuses its indie-rock sound with classical flourishes, you don’t need a trained ear to be knocked out by its epic beauty. Just as quickly as you’re swept up by the fanfare, everything falls away, leaving nothing but a few piano chords and that voice, resolving to love.
23 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: i don't want our loving to die, tracey ullman
Tracey Ullman: “I Don’t Want Our Loving to Die” (1984)
Saccharine Alert! Tracey Ullman’s two mid-80’s albums may be too sweet for some, but for fans of bubblegum or 60’s girl group pop they are a treasure.
Despite Ullman’s dismissive attitude toward her short-lived career as a pop star, this may be the finest retro girl pop ever produced, making stuff by latter-day practitioners such as She & Him seem pale and watered-down by comparison. The first key element is the material: well-chosen, fairly obscure oldies mixed with more contemporary material by sympathetic writers such as titanic talent Kirsty MacColl. Then there’s the sparkling production, which takes the elements that made the original girl-group stuff so great and pushes it all over the top.
“I Don’t Want Our Loving to Die” was originally recorded by Peter Frampton’s pre-Humble Pie band The Herd (Pete’s at right in the below photo). Compare their version to Ullman’s and decide for yourself who sells the song more effectively. Even Tracey’s grunt (17 seconds in) trumps the boys. In fact it might just be the best girl singer grunt of all time.
The Herd
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/05/17/songs-you-may-have-missed-415/
22 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: jack johnson, never know
Jack Johnson: “Never Know” (2005)
I have a weird relationship with Jack Johnson. I warmed very slowly to his laid-back acoustic surfer pop–or whatever it is–till a few albums into his career. After buying this 2005 album mainly because I was being asked to play “Banana Pancakes” at weddings, it sat on a pile of CDs on my desk for months before I actually forced myself to listen to it all the way through. Turns out the bad taste that “Banana Pancakes” had left in my mouth was at least somewhat misleading.
Although much of what he does still doesn’t light me up, certain of his songs knock me out. I think his 2010 album To the Sea is terrific, possessing hooks sharper than on previous albums. And “Never Know” just has an effortless-sounding cool about it. As if, unlike “Banana Pancakes”, this song isn’t trying so hard to get me to like it. Or something.
15 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: lonely hearts, richard & linda thompson
Richard & Linda Thompson: “Lonely Hearts” (1979)
No one can sing a sad song like Linda Thompson. And no one can write one like her one-time husband Richard.
It’s not that they were stylistic one-trick ponies: their albums showed them to be quite adept at political, comical or satirical material. And all resonated with a trademark passion and authenticity, and each brimmed with the tasteful guitar work of one of the instrument’s true masters.
But it’s the tear-jerkers that seem to stay with you once the needle hits the end groove–or what have you.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/10/06/songs-you-may-have-missed-187/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/03/09/songs-you-may-have-missed-355/
Every Moment Has A Song 