#but i -have- worked with a lot of vocalists and written a fair amount of (contemporary classical) vocal music

[1001albumsrated]

#32: Booker T. & the M.G.'s - Green Onions (1962)

Genre(s): RnB, Soul, Funk, Rock

This one's a pretty big deal. It's one of the rare non-jazz/non-classical instrumental albums to really do well and cause some impact. This group was the outlet for original material from members of Stax's house band, the Mar-Keys. As such, these guys have played on an impossible to quantify number of classic records (session musicians typically went uncredited in those days, despite often being a driving creative force behind the music). The title track was a big hit, which is a tough thing to achieve as an instrumental group in the pop sphere. And more importantly, it's a real fun listen.

One thing that sets Green Onions apart from a lot of instrumental music for me is the amount of structure and restraint shown across the album. For the most part the songs are songs first, rather than beds for jamming or improvisation. And while there are plenty of great solos to go around, the album spends a fair amount of time in verse/chorus mode, with the organ typically taking over "vocals". The solos always feel well-placed, intentional, and more than anything else lyrical. In fact, the fluidity of the playing on this album almost makes you forget that some of these tunes ever had vocals in the first place and weren't originally just written to be instrumentals. I Got a Woman is a highlight (and arguably the best track on the record), as is their version of Twist and Shout.

My only real complaint about this album (and get used to hearing this as we drift further into the 60s) is that most tracks end in fade-outs. While this can be a valid songwriting strategy in rare situations, 99% of the time it's just lazy songwriting. Choosing how to end a song is one of the hardest parts about writing one, and fade-outs are the ultimate cop out of the task. "Yeah man, let's just jam at the end and let the engineer figure out when to cut it off" or "Yeah let's just repeat the chorus some more, idk" are both lame non-choices. It feels more excusable on instrumental albums, but I'm going to hold them to task here anyways. Sometimes it's a situation where the band simply has more material than will fit on a single record and a few minutes need to be chopped, but again, a more adept songwriter will be aware of this limitation and know how to work around it.

Frankly it's a minor gripe in this case, but it's a personal pet peeve of mine so I had to at least soapbox a bit about it. Anyways, aside from that this album is excellent, and furthermore a very unique listen compared to most other albums of this era. This is an easy Yes for me on the MUST-o-meter.

I listened to this in hi-res on Qobuz, like most albums I don't own. I passed up a very nice audiophile pressing of this a while back, probably should have grabbed it, but oh well I suppose. Also, if you want to hear an excellent modern iteration on this sound, I highly recommend the album Baked, Broiled & Fried by Cookin' on 3 Burners (mostly instrumental aside from one or two guest vocalists, also features a killer version of Feel Good Inc).

Next time, we're dipping into the beginnings of bossa nova with Jazz Samba by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz!

[giftedpoison]

Y'all.

So like I'm absolutely unhinged and can never like something a normal amount.

Like ever.

But I got a job stage managering for a Renaissance faire near me in the summer. And also they asked me to help with a weekend event where I will be stage managering for a bunch of bands.

Sick right?

And like I've never done anything like this before. (And therefore no idea if I'm gonna enjoy it but I'm convinced that stage managering is actually my divine calling of sorts- specially for musicians but not limited to there. Which is mostly because it feels like something clicked into place. Like it feels right this feels like something I should be pursuing.)

But because I'm an academic with a hatred for the confines of real schooling at heart, I started doing research about what a stage manager should know (not to prepare for the jobs which are expecting me to be completely green) and the thing about a stage manager is they should have an understanding of all aspects of things that go into live performances.

So a music stage manager will understand the needs of a vocalist or an instrumentalist or the tech people as equally as possible and so forth.

And a theatre stage manager should comprehend actors needs, lighting needs, director needs, etc etc.

And as someone who has been in music and theatre most of my younger years less so since high school (couldn't keep up with my peers major L) I'm not completely alien to the world. (In fact I always say my first two loves were the written word and the performing arts) (plus I once went the trajectory of trying to become fight director back in 2020 which led to lots of research of that field shocker.)

ANYWAY

Now I'm like actively absorbing all the books I can find that has anything to do with film, theatre, and music.

And am currently reading Drama High by Michael Sokolove and The Music Never Stops by Peter Shapiro.

And I have a running list of documentaries to watch about different histories of music (specifically ones I'm less familiar with like blues and hip hop and opera but not limited)

And I'm trying to get back into practicing martial arts on my own.

And I have shows I want to see and events I want to go to.

BUT THESE BOOKS IM READING MAN. They get it.

Reading Drama High is so wild because I'm learning about these kids who would otherwise be mostly unknown other than this book and I just feel so deeply connected to them.

Courtney Meyers has my whole heart from that book. Like this quote about her "Taking the job at Georgine's felt like a death sentence. But theater is not an escape. In some ways, it is the opposite of that- it brings her closer to the true self she thinks she might be, or could become."

Georgine's is a diner that her mother and grandmother works at so she felt destined to repeat that. And as someone who also came from a small town and felt like I had nothing going for me and that I was doomed to job hop retail jobs like my parents and never quite get by enough? It resonated with me. It also resonated with me about her feelings on theater. Like music, writing, and theatre sure was a form of escapism but it was also always a form of self expression a way to pull out pieces of myself from the written word and look at my own reflection.

Even growing up id always want to play angry or villainous characters (to this day I think about how my theatre teacher passed me over for Morgana in sleeping beauty to give it to my twin who hated it, in 5th grade) because I wanted a safe space to express all this anger I had at a world that refused to listen. But not only that the confusion I had. The world was so achingly confusing and social cues confused me and the written word helped me try to unravel this confusion.

And don't even get me started on music. When I am in a venue listening to a band suddenly nothing else matters. When I am surrounded by people actively pursuing music I have both feelings of inadequacies but also at home.

When I see a concert I don't want them to perform to me like it's their job- I want to see you having fun and enjoying it even if you've been doing it for 20 years (I really see Ice Nine Kills as a shining example of this, but they are one of thousands however they are my only core experience as they are like one of few bands I've seen multiple times. And even tho it's clearly a performance as we get (fake!)killings on stage it's also for the love of horror and for the love of song. It has to be or they wouldn't be rocking the horror world with their very own convention that could very well be the next Spookyworld. If you're curious what I mean here's my review of their last convention where I explain that very concept.)

Theatre and Music are two loves I have that feel equal parts untouchable while also constantly being all around me.

And I don't know where I was going with this but I guess consider this the ramblings of someone in love with the arts who fears the arts will never love her back but she keeps trying to find her place anyway.

[rottingflowrs]

omg omg omg shut up because 141! hard rock band brain rot.

navigation ／ masterlist

pairing: 141! × afab!reader ( mention of female anatomy)

(Vocalist! ghost, Guitarist!Gaz, Bassist!Price, Drummer!Soap )

warnings / contains: mentions of female anatomy,brief thigh riding , cockwarming ,use of pet names like doll , dollie , make up , a chipped tooth , me not knowing the architectural design of tour buses , my writing lmao.(let me know if there's something I need to add)

a/n: might build this into a series if anyone is interested.I have written after a long long time so I might be a little rusty but I enjoyed doing this :p

(slightly NSFW)

you being their favourite groupie.

lots of good luck kisses before they go on stage

Going on all their tours with them

You’re their favourite little dolly to dress up to show off

They buy you expensive makeup (totally not because they’re gonna want to use it too )

Sitting in their lap before a show and doing their makeup for them

They watch you with adoration as you concentrate on getting the eyeliner right, sticking a bit of your tongue out of habit.

Makeup artists? Personal stylists? psssh no that is what you’re job. you’ll do it for them won’t you, dollie?

Sitting on their laps removing all their make-up after the show. Gently rubbing the cotton pad on their eyes removing copious amounts of eyeliner and glittery eyeshadow

They don’t rub off the lipstick stains on their cheeks before they go on stage. Love it when you mark them up with different shades of lipstick.

OMFG THEIR LIPS HAVE A LITTLE GLITTER ON THEM FROM YOUR LIP GLOSS AFTER A QUICK PRE-SHOW MAKE-OUT SESH.

Simon has you pick out all his outfits for him, he's a private man and isn't on social media. He doesn't know what is in he needs your help to decide what he looks good in. He doesn’t understand how colour pallets work, what do you mean he’s cool-toned? Maybe you should help dress him too while you’re at it since you’re such a smartie :>

Gaz using the excuse of teaching you how to play the guitar to spend more time with you. Sweeps you away from the other when the tour bus is at a halt. Finger brushes up against yours as he gently guides your finger across the stringed instrument as you sit in between his arms, your back against his chest. Gently humming as he teaches you a simple tune his chest vibrating against your back. The gentle rumbling of his chest as he’s humming putting you to sleep. Mumbling how you need to be rewarded later for being such a fast learner, you learned so many cords in one day now all you need to do is relax dollie he’ll take care of the rest.

Price brings you up in EVERY interview. He is absolutely whipped. Loves doing all the domestic bullshit with you. Cooks with you in a dinky small kitchen in the tour bus, dances with you, sings for you. Eats your baking failures without a complaint despite you telling him not to .no doll these cookies aren’t too hard to chew. Ends up with a chipped tooth asks and asks you to kiss him after to make it all better.

Soap setting you down on his lap to teach you the drums, holding your wrists gently to guide your hands. Slowly shifting you to one of his thighs.Bouncing you on his thigh out of the excuse of getting your attention but you can practically feel him smirking from behind you. He knows what he’s doing.

NSFW

THEY ARE INSATIABLE

Always have to be around you. Touching some part of you.Hugging you.Hand at your lower back.Head resting on your shoulder.

They love marking you up it’s only fair. You get to mark them with your lipstick stains, and sure the marks they give you don’t come off with makeup remover or water but you look good with them. makes you look even prettier dollie

Take turns fucking you in the recording studio to see who can make you moan the prettiest. Make you sit down and hear it and decide which one sounded the best. They definitely get super competitive.

Use your whines and moans in the background of their songs RAHHHHHHHH

Soap needs a quickie before every show .omfg doing it in the wings.omfg, I’m weak. Him grunting and grumbling I’m your ear about how much he needs you because you’re his favourite thing his good luck charm. He needs to perform well for his fans and only you can ensure that

Gaz insists you join him for every post-concert shower because only you can get him all clean. He has you lather him up and takes his sweet time gliding his hands slowly across your body He needs to make sure you’re properly clean can’t have his dollie get all dirty now, can he? Pins you to the wall, steam all around you both as he fucks you in the tour bus shower. Makes sure the others hear you screaming his name. Gets you all dirty and now has to take his sweet time cleaning you again only to get you all dirty immediately after.

Price having you cockwarm him after the show because he gets just so tierd D: and he just needs his little dollie close to him. Has you sit there for hours, chest to chest resting his head on your shoulder muttering sweet nothings into your ear .loves when you pepper kisses all across his face

Ghost getting all riled up and full of energy after the show and he needs to exhaust himself or he won't be able to sleep :( so he fucks you in his bunk while the others are asleep not caring about all the noise he’s making (not that the others mind the view)

send an ask

[dreamaze]

wings i read all ur tags !!!! (lucky me being online rn hehe) and i could just agree with you a thousand times over 😭😭😭 like not to be a nerd but this whole thing does stem from the idea in theatre that really happened in the 19th century (male leads/romantic heroes becoming tenors nearly exclusively) and accommodating scores and it just swept over pop music a century later to this day. the idea that tenors > pleasant sound and baritones > bad sound is so ridiculous. (ok nerd time over) and the fact that i still have to wait for bts songs comfortable in tae's range (boy in luv not withstanding and even that pushes it) as well as in his solos is absolutely baffling. i love the way they all distribute lines among each other but it is unbelievable that the usual pattern goes jk's lines > tae's lines when they are not close in range. not to mention that while vmin songs are always sweet, they BOTH talked about how tough it is to sing together. even namjoon mentioned how the rappers have a hard time to adjust to the high vocal line keys (which weren't as high in earlier songs). like in general just let lower voices get their time to shine. very few groups do this (well) but it's 2k21 and we deserve those low notes and beautiful songs for that baritone range too !!!

Al, I went to school for ('classical') music (composition) so these nerd hours are ALWAYS OPEN. And I'm really glad to have someone to discuss it with because it's kinda been plaguing me ever since I started listening to BTS. (I don't listen to much pop music in general, so they were initially a pretty big anomaly for me.) I honestly hadn't thought about how the characterization of tenors as the romantic protagonists in theatre/opera vs. the side roles or antagonists being relegated to lower voice types has manifested in contemporary pop music, but it makes a lot of sense! The dichotomy is so outdated, and the only real bad sound is forcing singers way out of their natural range. (And I have a minor beef with how this also translates to pop singers not developing their chest range because everything is written higher, higher, but I will set that grievance aside for now because part of that is also a genre/style thing.)

this got long so here's a cut to spare everyone else --

I completely agree about the line distributions, and this comes back to the laziness, for lack of a better term, or flat-out indifference in the actual composing process. It should be natural forethought to accommodate your bari's range in the melodic material, rather than always force him to cycle through the same line rotation that the tenors are covering. There are obviously some exceptions in BTS songs (after they moved beyond those early stages of rough belting, which ?? hm, potentially unhealthy for different reasons if not trained properly). Like the ending of Sea is one of the most beautiful and gutting moments to me out of any of their songs. I will also throw out there, before I forget, that the deliberate choice to have Tae sing at the top of his register can be very effective. Specifically, I am thinking of his line 'Kill me softly' in the bridge of Blood Sweat & Tears. It is strained, particularly in that era of recording, but it works because it feels like a conscious choice that both reflects the text and heightens the drama of that moment. But for the most part ... again, it seems like the majority of his assignments are out of convenience to the tenors and to spare the composers the challenge (???) of writing something that is just a little different. And it's not like he would never share lines, because there is overlap between his range and a lower/mid tenor. I suppose the real frustration from me is that with a little bit of creativity and intentionality, this shouldn't be that difficult??

It broke my heart a little when he said that Friends was really challenging for him because I love vmin as a duo. I really wish it was easier for them. I get that the genre is a bit of a limiting factor here because the harmonizing is never going to be that complex. But their parallel octaves in Blue & Grey are SO BEAUTIFUL and showed to me at least that there are ways they can make it work. (Also side note, I think B&G is one of their strongest and most thoughtful instances of line rotation, bless u Tae.) And it's been a little while since I've listened to it, but their Fix You cover was also a fantastic example of how they can all (rap line included!) harmonize comfortably when the key is a little lower. (Rant topic for another time since I'm already rambling too much here: also, why such a hard division between vocal and rap lines?? Give them all good vocal training, it will help their voices grow whether they're singing or rapping! HOBI VOCAL LINE WHEN *ahem* anyway~~~) I love the tenors, I really do, but quite frankly they would benefit just as much from strengthening their lower ends. I think Jimin said parts of B&G were challenging for him because they were so low, but I once listened to his lowest phrase like 10 times in a row because I couldn't get over how striking it sounded. (probably wasn't even the whole phrase, it may have just been the pick-up at 3'02", that's how obsessed I was!! I had to stop myself from doing it again just now.)

I've been rambling a lot and should pipe down now, but I guess I will end with: please, composers, treat your baris more equitably! Also I can't wait for KTH1 because he is finally going to be able to shine in his element without making a tenor cry.

P.S. I am always here for more conversations like this (with anyone!), and to Al specifically, if you ever want to share some theatre recommendations with me, I'd be honored. ♡

[pvffinsdaisies]

aph Norway, professional singer au headcanons

Lukas somehow manages to be both an amazing vocalist and a formidable lyricist at the same time. He himself is pretty humble but his fans brag about both of these qualities all the time

His songs tend to be quite challenging and pretty demanding to sing, he’s usually completely fine with performing them though there has been times he’s lip synced (usually bc of a sickness of some kind). he’s open about having lip synced before but unfortunately it has meant he’s lost some respect as a singer

Lukas’ songs tell a story, all usually different but there are a few songs that lead off from one another and it’s one continuing story throughout all his albums. there are even theories online predicting where he’s taking said story

His sound is very unique, and he himself will openly say he’d rather not be defined as a type of genre. despite that it’s generally agreed to be somewhere on the rock spectrum.

He plays all the instruments you hear on the album himself- he’s very independent in terms of most areas of his work. however the only instrument he tends to play live himself is his iconic blue and black 7 string electric violin. he absolutely destroys it every time.

Norway is a countertenor, but he’s easily able to hit soprano notes and whilst it is a little harder for him, has the ability to go far lower than he necessarily should be able to.

that being said it’s very clear at the start of his career he was shy to show off his high voice, his first album his voice was basically as low as he could make it. over time his confidence grew to the point he’s more than comfortable with his actual voice and many of his songs flaunt his ability to hit high note and his flawless falsetto and head voice

in some of his most recent songs he has hit whistle notes, but he prefers to dodge them live because they’re not the most supported at the moment and he’s still a little scared to actually hit them in general even on album tracks

he tends to collaborate most often with Finland as their styles are easiest to match together. not only do their voices harmonise beautifully, finland sounds hauntingly perfect on top of norway’s violin. whenever they perform live together it’s a t r e a t.

in terms of appearance and image, nor cares very little about gender stereotypes and actually is more often seen in skirts than in trousers. some kinda rock look going on, a lot of blacks, whites and darker blues and purples. he has a signature black and white sailor hat which he is seemingly always wearing- even just in interviews and such- no one really knows why he hears it but for the longest time everyone assumed his curl was connected to it via a very thin wire. that was proved to be incorrect when he looks his hat off at the end of a performance once and placed it on one of the band members and the curl didn’t move.

his fans will often turn up to concerts and live events with their own versions of his sailor hat and their own fake curls usually connected to the hats

he tends to walk around and pace a lot in his performances, and when he isn’t holding his violin he’s clutching his microphone with one hand whilst the other runs around freely in the air making lots of hand gestures and movements

he prefers if the music videos match up to the story of the song, and often takes a bit of control in terms of directing too. he’s also in charge of the costuming himself. he takes his brand and image very seriously and refuses to let anyone mess with it. if the image ever slips it’s because he’s chosen for it to happen, and usually for a reason.

norwegian folklore plays a big part in his image.

he generally tends to sing and write in english, but there are a fair amount of norwegian songs too. it really all depends on language he personally thinks will tell the story better. the music videos will always have translations to either english or norwegian in them too.

he debated the stage name “Sigurd Fjor” for quite a while before quickly deciding to just go with “Lukas”. he still sometimes regrets not using the stage name but he doesn’t mind using his real name either.

Lukas has only ever written one personal song, and it was actually in danish rather than norwegian. it was a love song, telling his own story of how hard it’s been for him to accept his feelings towards this mystery woman and how scary and frightening it was- and still is- but the song ends peacefully to show his own comfort with her and how happy is he is to have her. the song is titled “og jeg elsker dig” (and i love you) and is one of the most complex songs to both play and sing out of his entire catalog but is also seen as perhaps his most touching song. he revealed in an interview the song is in danish bc it’s one of the languages he associates with his lover that he himself is also able to speak. (the mystery girl is my Faroe Islands oc bc i’m a sucker for them)

Lukas’ musical talent is unmatched, and it’s clear he absolutely adores what he’s doing, he has a very devoted fan base who he absolutely adores. he often supports plenty new and upcoming artists on his social media platforms.

Lukas has won awards before, i would say at least two. like previously mentioned, he has still managed to remain humble and sweet.

[dailytomlinson]

At the stroke of midnight on January 31st, 2020, the music industry was single-handedly saved by just a young lad from Doncaster. We can all agree, in confidence, that the majority of artists won’t top the charts with their first LP, especially with little to no promo. “Walls” however, debuted at #1 on the worldwide iTunes charts, a feat not many will come by. Judging by its success, we can rightfully assume this album could be rather magical. Just over a month into the decade, I can happily testify that this may be one of the greatest pieces of work we’ll see over the span of the next 10 years. The only record I may allow to top it, will be Tomlinson’s sophomore album, which is fair to speculate will have a little less fan service and show a little more of the grunge britpop rockstar that Louis is dying to showcase.

Oh, this guy’s from One Direction, too. It’s a fact that doesn’t need to be honed in on, but in case you aren’t familiar with his older work, the UK-based band is where he found his origin story. Though hopefully after giving these tracks a listen, we’ll all be able to start celebrating him as the solo artist he was destined to become.

Kill My Mind

You hate me and I want more.

Perhaps I wasn’t alive during majority of the Britpop Movement of the 90s, but I can wholeheartedly say that if you played this opening track for anyone familiar with the genre, they would tell you it would feel right at home as a feature on one of Oasis’ final LPs or as a single brought to us by Blur. However, that is not to say it lacks originality. In fact, far from it. His thick Yorkshire accent demands your attention right off the bat. This song is confident, it’s loud, it’s sexy, it’s everything his loyal fanbase has been patiently waiting to see arise from the musician. It’s a different Tomlinson than the general public may be accustomed to, but it’s a perfect example of an artist finding their authentic self. The electric opener, Kill My Mind gives us a little tease as to what’s to come.

Don’t Let It Break Your Heart

What hurts you is gonna pass and you’ll have learned from it when it comes back.

After careful consideration, this may be the album’s weakest link. It draws on a bit of the pop-influence his previous audiences may be more familiar with. Previously, Louis released a single-edit and a piano version. The one featured on the album, is by far the most well mixed. It’s filled with beautiful harmonies and the layered vocals have a lot of potential. The message of this song is uplifting, about overcoming hardships with grace and allowing yourself to grow from them — A theme not uncommon in Louis’ writing or general life philosophy. Always the lyricist, coming from him, this message works and it works beautifully into the melodies of the song. My main issue comes down to production. The background vocals are choppy and make the general feeling of the song a little cheesy. Ultimately, it all just sounds forced. I can say however, experiencing this song live is a different story. Some songs are meant to be played live, and this just happens to be one of them.

Two of Us

We’ll end just like we started, just you and me, and no one else.

The lead single was one Louis himself proclaimed needed to be written, or else his other art would suffer from being insincere. “I just feel like musically, I almost needed to get this song off my chest,” He recently told Rolling Stone, “People say writing is a part of therapy and in a way, I feel like I’d been avoiding writing this song because I knew I only had one chance to get it right.” For those who may be unaware, at the start of his solo career, Louis tragically lost his mother, the person he was closest with, to leukemia. Out of respect to him, I won’t dwell on this, and it does feel fairly inconsiderate to put the piece under review, per say. I will, however, assert that it is a stunningly orchestrated song. You can feel the authenticity and honesty radiate from the words he’s singing, especially in the big build up of the chorus in comparison to the heart wrenching and softly sung outro. It’s rare we find artists who are proud to wear their hearts on their sleeves and speak with true openness. Each song is an example of this, but Two of Us broadcasts this vulnerability loudly, as he gives us an anthem of accepting that you’re grieving and reminding listeners to always hold onto hope.

We Made It

Nothing in the world that I would change it for, singing something pop-y on the same four chords.

Yes, she’s corny, yes her lyrics might not be up to standard with the rest of his work, and yes, she is my favorite song on the album. We Made It, is filled to the rim with nostalgia and embracing that although the tunnel was dark, there was in the end, a light. For anyone who has grown up with Louis and supported him through all the twists and turns of his decade long career, this song could be a celebration of us and our relationship with our favorite musician. There were always struggles along the way, but we, as fans, never turned our back on him. We were there for him when he needed us to lean on. The sentiment remains when reversed. Ultimately, whatever we needed, he was able to provide. It’s easy to see how much of a team Louis and his followers are, and this song is honoring that. If you’re less familiar with the singer himself, then this track is just a fun little guitar-driven song that reminisces those nights of getting smashed and blazed out of your mind with your young love, and what’s wrong with that?

Too Young

Face to face at the kitchen table, this is everything I’ve waited for.

Every album needs a song to cry to, and for Walls, this is the one. There aren’t too many complexities here, as Louis has said he generally likes to stray away from metaphors when he can. The calm strumming of the acoustic guitar, lends itself beautifully to the track, and never overpowers Louis’ voice. Vocally, this a huge example of a myriad of Louis’ strengths. It contrasts some of the heavily belted pieces we hear later on in the album, and focuses on the softness he’s able to convey in his killer range of a chest voice. His raspy tone demonstrates a certain intimacy. When the song is listened to through headphones with your eyes closed, it almost feels as if Louis is right there on your bedside, gently playing a personal piece he had just written and trusts you enough to perform it for you first. There’s a certain amount of emotional intelligence demonstrated in this song, as he never pulls the victim card, but instead takes the mature approach of admitting to where he’s gone wrong. This notion is used a lot in his writing, and is a sure telling of his character. This catchy little ballad wouldn’t feel out of place on albums of most genres, musically lacking some originality, which is made up for with the candor and polish in his vocals.

Walls

Why is it that “thank-you” is so often bittersweet?

Objectively speaking, this is the most well crafted track on the album. Perhaps even more Oasis-y than some Oasis hits, it even earned itself a writing credit from Noel Gallagher himself. By now, we are more than well accustomed to embracing Louis’ themes of overcoming barriers (or walls). It’s something he writes about often, and why shouldn’t he? He knows what it’s like to stand above what’s been dragging you down more than anyone. The most titular lyric opens and closes the tune, proclaiming, “Nothing wakes you up, like waking up alone.” As soon as you’re hit with this, you know you’re listening to a song which dares the audience to take the musician earnestly. Louis has always been the funny one who has chosen to never take himself too seriously in life. With his music, he had a hard time at the start, choosing to put out records which defined Top 40, but never himself. Walls forces us to accept the artist he’s become. It proves to every listener, that Louis Tomlinson is a musician, a lyricist, a vocalist; a true craftsman. He is a serious artist and this salient track forces us, for once, to accept him as one.

Habit

Took some time cause I ran out of energy, of playing someone I’ve heard I’m supposed to be.

Back in February of 2018, Louis teased this lyric on his twitter, sending fans into a frenzy of when and where this sentiment might come into play. In September of last year, he finally played it for us live. This live version of the song was a complete bore. Again, Louis’ biggest asset in his music may come from his lyrics. He wrote more songs for One Direction than any of the other boys, often partnering with Liam Payne who would work on the melodies, while Louis focused on cutting deep with his words. This is more than evident here, meaning any initial fondness of this song was independently due to the verses he was singing. When the album finally hit stands and we were able to hear the studio version, I have to say, my opinion on this absolute banger changed drastically. It may be a little controversial to say, but this song might have some “Yeehaw” vibes. If you played someone the opening, before his vocals take the forefront, it would’ve been fair to assume it was a Maren Morris hit. Country/Britpop/Indie isn’t exactly something I would ever even consider diving into, but let me tell you, this certified bop has been on repeat. Here’s to hoping him and his band can put together a new live arrangement before the world tour kicks off in March.

Always You

Waiting to wrap your legs around me, and I know you hate to smoke without me.

To be blunt, this song was a fan service. If it wasn’t for Louis’ persistent stans, this track may have been ditched months ago. However, when he gave us a glimpse of the songs upbeat opening lyric three years ago, we latched onto it. For years we bombarded Louis, telling him this song needed to stay on the record, and thank God he listened. He did realize partway through the writing process that this isn’t the sort of music he would like to put out anymore, so it may not resonate with someone looking for the more grungy side of the artist. Always You is almost pure bubblegum and it sounds like it should be radiating loudly off festival speakers. The tune will be a crowd-pleaser, and will surely bring the most hype for live audiences. It’s the sort of song you want to scream out while drunk on a rooftop in the summer atop the ocean in New York City, which is exactly what myself and approximately 6800 more fans will be doing this June.

Fearless

Cash in your weekend treasures, for a suit and tie, a second wife.

God damn is Fearless sexy. The slow and pulsing beat of this song, with the organic guitar, subtle production, and his sultry voice are a recipe for a great and sensual tune. The song was written with the inspiration of feeling youthful, and teaches what to center your sense of self-worth around. There’s a certain level of maturity that comes with a song of these intentions, and in that, Louis is able to showcase his ever growing wisdom. “What I wanted to try and capture with the song is the idea of feeling youthful and how important that is,” He recently said in an interview with Apple Music, “I’m at this age where I’m on the cusp — I’m definitely not a teenager, I’m not a young lad anymore, nor am I old, but I sit in this space where I’m aware of my age now. I hear it as a playground or going back to real youth.”

Perfect Now

Don’t you wanna dance? Just a little dance?

On release day, Louis did a signing, where he bravely asked a few fans what their least favorite track on the album was. Everyone said Perfect Now, earning them a high five from the man himself as well as his genuine agreement. While many look at it as a cheesy romantic love song, masquerading as a rejected early One Direction track, mirroring Little Things or What Makes You Beautiful, I wholeheartedly disagree. It’s easy to chalk it down to being “cheesy” when you approach it as being romantic, but if you look at it as, simply, a love song, that changes the perspective. Louis sings over an appealing and charming little guitar melody, and you can almost hear his smile. It’s easy to picture him singing this to his younger sisters as a piece of brotherly encouragement, or to a good friend who needs cheering up after a hard day. This darling melody invites you to dance around your bedroom feeling loved. Perfect Now proves that not everything has to be deep and serious; allow yourself to be open to simply feeling happy over the little things like a lyric that makes you smile. When in the chorus he prompts, “Keep your head up, love,” listeners can’t help but feel a sense of personal support from the artist, which is exactly what makes this song so special.

Defenseless

We’re sleeping on our problems like we’ll solve them in our dreams.

It’s understandable why Louis likes to stray from metaphors in his writing, because generally speaking, they simply aren’t good. This is proven with lyrics such as, “I’m running to you like a moth into a flame”. As well as this, the rhyming of “defenseless” with “fences” and then “defenseless” again, doesn’t exactly sit well. The song does grow to be much better than anticipated after the first verse. The pre-chorus has a strong beat, which you’ll find yourself accidentally clapping along to in public. The bridge allows Louis to explore his falsetto, which is something we’ve never heard from him before. It’s strong and poignant, and it’s a real shame that his old band never gave him the opportunity to use his voice in all its capabilities. The control Louis has over his vocals throughout this song is astonishing, and almost unheard of in most modern music outside of musical theatre. This track alone, proves that he is one of the most vocally gifted artists not only to come out of One Direction, but to come out of the last decade at all.

Only the Brave

It’s a church of burnt romances and I’m too far gone to pray.

The lyrics to this song are borderline poetry. Each and every word draws you in and leaves you speechless. It’s a short song, ending at one minute and forty-four seconds, and that works well. It leaves us wanting more, even when we’ve reached the very end of the whole experience. The tune feels like a mantra; something to sing to yourself as you prepare for something you’re nervous about or to congratulate yourself on completing a task you never thought you could accomplish. There’s no proper structure and his voice has a retro filter over top, giving the whole thing a bit of a wartime vibe. The most powerful moment is undoubtedly when he sings, “It’s a solo song, and it’s only for the brave,” as a way of patting himself on the back for where he is now in life and in his career. It’s the perfect way to bring home the album. After 12 tracks demonstrating it, it is proven to us that he doesn’t need his ex-bandmates, he doesn’t need a big production, he doesn’t need Simon Cowell, he doesn’t need other songwriters dictating what direction to go, because he is Louis Tomlinson and he is brave.

[cashforrester]

rank all the songs on the trolls soundtracks!

Alrighty! Since there's 33 total, I'm going to start at #33 and go up to #1, aka the best song in both Trolls combined soundtracks! Please note that I'm not up to debating any of these placements and if you try, I'll scream -- I'm not an expert on much, but I am on the world of Trolls and that's absolutely final. Also worth noting is that even #33 is a masterpiece; this list really isn't from bad to good, it's more from 'pretty good' to 'absolutely rocked my world and changed it forever more!'.

33. The last place spot goes to "Rainbows, Unicorns, Everything Nice" from Trolls: World Tour! It’s a fun little bop and it got a small chuckle out of me but in the end, it’s super short and a little too obvious.

32. “The Other Side” by SZA and JT has to score low. I know it was used to bookend Trolls: World Tour or at least the instrumentals were, but it’s one of the more boring songs on the soundtrack which is the closest to a criticism of one of these songs I’ll have.

31. “Just Sing”, the non-film version, goes here. I know this seems low and it kind of is, but that’s because outside of the context of the movie, the song doesn’t have the same punch! The movie version will be higher on the list!

30. Next goes to "What U Workin' With?" by Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake from Trolls! It wasn’t super utilized in the movie so it’s just kind of a spare song on the soundtracks, even if it is a fun bop! I still dance along when it comes on my playlists but the other songs are more integral to the plot.

29. The next spot goes to "Don't Slack" by Anderson Paak and Justin Timberlake, aka the voices of Prince D and Branch! It’s used in the credits of Trolls: World Tour and they’re cute little credits and a cute little song but because it wasn’t used in a more relevant way, it has to rank lower than the others.

28. "I Fall to Pieces" by Sam Rockell, aka the voice of Hickory from Trolls: World Tour comes next! It’s a short but totally funny country tune that’s used well in the plot and made me smile. It is very short though and more of a joke than anything else, but the music isn’t bad so here we go!

27. "Rock N Roll Rules" by HAIM comes next and it’s a really REALLY good song, don’t get me wrong! I love the instrumentals and how they’re used in Trolls: World Tour and I still wish they’d gotten the lead singer of HAIM to voice Queen Barb instead of Rachel Bloom, but ultimately it just reminds me we didn’t get a great rock vocalist for the most important character in the sequel.

26. "It's All Love" by Andersen Paak has to come next! I love this song actually but there’s two versions on the soundtrack and this is the non-film version so it’s got to score lower than songs actually used in the movies, but holy heck, it’s a really good song, I’d highly recommend it.

25. Another song that’s just used as a joke is "The Sound of Silence" by Anna Kendrick, aka Poppy in Trolls and this ranks higher than the others because it was the first real joke song and it made me laugh so hard I cried!

24. "Barracuda” is the worst of Rachel Bloom’s vocal performances in Trolls: World Tour and I hate to say it, I really do, but at times on this one, you can definitely hear that she isn’t a rock singer. It scores higher than the others so far because it was used in a super plot relevant moment and super effectively! AND the most offensive part of the song to my ears, when she says the titular word horribly, was cut out of the film, so it gets 26th instead of last place for being a song that’s hard for me, the King of Suspension of Disbelief, to take seriously.

23. “They Don’t Know” by Ariana Grande comes next. It’s a fun bubbly song that fits Gristle and Bridget’s first date in Trolls perfectly and it made me really really want a roller-skating date at some point in my life. It gets points off for not being able to understand the words and also because none of the characters actually sang it. Songs in the backgrounds of musicals score lower with me.

22. I have to put “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake here. It’s one of my favorite songs ever but the film version is even better! It gets higher than other non-film versions because of how much it was used for advertising, it basically became synonymous with the Trolls franchise and that sparks joy.

21. And on that note, I have to put “True Colors” the non-film version, before we get to our top twenty. It’s such an amazing song but in the scope of the Troll world... well, the film version is going to score way higher, you’ll see.

20. "Trolls 2 Many Hits Mashup" in Trolls: World Tour has to come next. It’s the last joke song, and the highest scorer because at least they committed to the joke of pop music being way too much! The scene in its entirety is hilarious and all the voice actors really did their best! 

19. "Leaving Lonesome Flats" from Trolls: World Tour comes next! It loses some major points for not being sung by a character in the movie but it’s basically sung by the location that is Lonesome Flats and I love that! It’s a fun little country dirge that really makes us feel transported and it also slaps.

18. "Crazy Train" is maybe the average of Rachel Bloom’s performance as Barb in Trolls: World Tour. It’s over the top and not necessarily in a good way but it’s inoffensive to the ears and a good song notwithstanding whether it’s a cover. 

17. "Trolls Wanna Have Good Times" has to come next which isn’t fair, really; the only reason it’s not higher is because it’s clearly trying to do as well at an opening medley as its predecessor Trolls did with their opening medley. As it often is with sequels, the opening number really didn’t measure up. It was made up of some really fun parts and it gets points for having personalized lyrics (’lived underground away from the world till I had my life changed by a beautiful girl. Just need the guts to tell her that she’s the one’? Amazing!)

16. "Hair Up" from the opening of Trolls comes next! It’s purely sentimental that its this high but every time I hear this beat, it’s like I’m about to start watching Trolls and my whole mind and body get happy so it had to be top twenty, although not fifteen because it’s not the best of the best.

15. "Born to Die" by Kelly Clarkson, aka Delta Dawn, from Trolls: World Tour comes next. My favorite songs from the sequels were the introduction songs for the most part, and this song did a great job of summing up the differences between country trolls and pop trolls. It was great for plot, character, and conflict! It’s just not the kind of music I bop to - ironically, it’s lower than the other introduction songs for me because it’s not fun, which I know is their whole thing, but my whole thing is having fun!

14. "Atomic Dog World Tour Remix" is the funk trolls introduction song in Trolls: World Tour and it’s funky and fun and fresh and I love it! There’s not that much to say about this one, it’s used pretty quickly but very effectively from a storytelling standpoint! It quickly puts us into the world of the funk trolls.

13. "One More Time" is a very nearly perfect introduction song for the techno trolls in Trolls: World Tour! I love how the emphasis of this song is the instrumentals and the dancing more than the actual words -- the techno trolls are big on synchronicity and beats and it’s something that differentiates them from the other kinds of trolls and also makes them a devastating first colony to attack in the movie. They’re all about unity and togetherness and something about attacking and tearing apart the group that’s all about syncing up is so tragic.

12.  “Rock You Like a Hurricane” is the best Bloom sounds in the movie as Barb, and it’s also her introduction song, not surprisingly. The instrumentals are amazing both as a display of talent and power and her voice lends itself well to the moment; it’s a great opener for the rock trolls and it made me so excited to see more from them!

11. “Perfect for Me” is Trolls: World Tour’s answer to the excellence that was the True Colors duet and it was really cute! It wasn’t quite as perfect for the moment as True Colors was, which is funny because this one was written for the movie but I don’t know, since it was written for the movie, I’d have hoped it’d be better? More fitting? It’s a fine enough song that sometimes I listen to sadly while lying down in my bed but in the Trollverse, it’s not top ten material.

10. “September” comes next! It’s the song that the Trolls start singing as soon as they escape the Bergins and it’s their celebration song and I love it for that! It’s also used in the credits of the first movie which makes me love it more; I don’t know, it’s performed and sung really well and makes me really happy. The top ten all spark MASSING amounts of joy.

9. “It’s All Love (History of Funk)” is one of the best songs in the sequel! I love the way the funk trolls go through the history of funk and music, and the beats are amazing and the lyrics are so good and the movie’s scene is SO GOOD. I can’t articulate how much I love that the funk trolls show their history through album covers instead of scrapbooks like the pop trolls. All the vocalists are crazy talented and something about the beat just...yes. It’s just a yes.

8. “Yodel Beat”! It scores surprisingly high if you haven’t seen Trolls: World Tour but if you HAVE seen it, you’ll understand why! It’s one of the best songs for musically punctuating a moment that the entire franchise has and I still get goosebumps thinking about how that scene was executed and how this song played such a massive role in it. Big fan, big fan!

7. "I'm Coming Out" / "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" is just hilarious! I love this scene in Trolls, as it’s the first example we have that Trolls and Bergins can work together, as well as the fact that Bergins can be happy without eating trolls, since Bridget is so confident and awesome! I also give lots of points to mashups and medleys and this was an unexpected one that just worked!

6. "Just Sing (Trolls World Tour)" is the best song in the sequel, hands down! When all the leaders of the different troll counties sing together? It’s amazing, every single time! It’s so meaningful, the fact that music is the most important thing in all of their lives and how it’s what ultimately unites them. I shed a tear every time, honestly. I’m tearing up thinking about it right now.

5. "Hello"  in Trolls is performed EXPERTLY by Zooey Deschanel. Did anyone know she was that funny? Because holy carp! She’s hilarious! I love this song and scene, it was one of the first scenes in Trolls that made me realize this movie was on a whole other level! It had to be top five!

4. "Get Back Up Again" by Anna Kendrick aka Poppy has to be a high scorer! It’s an original for the movie and it’s so damn good! It’s optimistic and encouraging and I love it for the movie and the character but I also love to listen to it when I need some help getting up or feeling like it’s going to be a good day. I will get back up again! It’s a great philosophy and a fantastic reminder that life can knock you down but that you’ll be good!

3. Top three times! The best medley in the movie has to be here, and that’s "Move Your Feet" / "D.A.N.C.E." / "It's a Sunshine Day"! It’s our introduction to the Pop trolls in the first movie and it’s crafted so good! I love it! No matter how many times I listen to it, it makes me so so happy the way the songs flow together. Any world where these songs exist and fit together as well as they do is a world I want to be sucked into for at least the next two hours of my life.

2. THE FILM VERSION OF “TRUE COLORS”! Is my number two pick! It has to be! It’s so impactful and emotional and romantic and if I ever get somebody to want to marry me, an instrumental cover of this has to be our first dance song, I’m sorry. It’s so beautiful! And the film version somehow makes an amazing song even better! WHEN THE TROLLS HUG TIME WATCHES CHIME OFF IN THE TUNE OF THE SONG?! AS THEY FACE THEIR IMPENDING DOOM?! IT’S AMAZING, SHOWSTOPPING, LEGENDARY, ICONIC. I’m getting sweaty just thinking about it!

1. If you know me, you knew “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, the film version, was gonna be number one! The buildup to that moment in the movie is cinematic perfection, the performance is dazzling, and the feeling it leaves in you is unforgettable. It’s the song that’s played when the trolls teach the Bergins that you don’t need to eat other sentient species to be happy, you just need to find the magic and music inside of you, and it’s a lesson I learned while watching -- this movie and this song unlocked a power inside of me to smile and be happy with just myself and it’s absolutely... it’s just everything. It’s everything and I love it and I love you, whoever you are, who sent me this ask, because getting to think about and go through all the songs in Trolls that I love, it was awesome.

honesty hour!

[sinceileftyoublog]

Alex Weston Interview: Scoring the Year’s Most Universal Film

BY JORDAN MAINZER

In Lulu Wang’s fantastic new film The Farewell (A24), a Chinese family chooses not to reveal to their matriarch that she’s dying but want to see her before she goes. So, they do what any good family would do: stage a fake wedding. Right? As absurd as it sounds, it’s Wang’s story, the center of which is presented through the perspective of Billi (Awkwafina), an NYC-based aspiring writer befuddled by what she perceives as her family’s dishonesty and betrayal. At the heart of the conflict are diverging modes of thought, the individualism of the West at odds with the collectivism of the East. According to Billi’s Japan-based uncle, the family, not the grandmother, Nai Nai, should bear the emotional burden of death. As such, the film is chock full of scenes of characters experiencing extreme emotion without trying to make it look like it, so as not to give away the secret they’re keeping from Nai Nai, but often failing and having to make excuses for tears.

This same strife is rife throughout composer Alex Weston’s essential score. Based around a motif of desolate classical string compositions and eerie, high-pitched, wordless vocals, Weston’s music drives along the film as the family tries as best as they can to achieve their secrecy, adding the tension that inevitably threatens to boil over due to longstanding familial disagreements and differences in values and country of residence. At the same time, it’s moments of musical familiarity and tradition that keep the family’s bond strong. Wang’s deft script presents these moments as key--Billi and her father singing “Killing Me Softly” at wedding karaoke, Italian aria “Caro Mio Ben” superimposed over the family getting wildly drunk with booze, splendor, and despair--while Weston’s arrangements supply them with the timbre and tone to allow them to maintain their importance to the film’s impassioned journey.

I spoke to Weston over the phone last month about his approach to scoring the film, working with Wang, and curating the soundtrack. Read the interview below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: How did you become involved with the project?

Alex Weston: It was kind of a traditional pathway for something like this. They were looking at a lot of composers, and the music supervisor was giving Lulu Wang, the director, a bunch of options. Someone suggested me, and I met with Lulu to talk about the project and wrote a couple of scenes sort of as a little tryout. She decided to go with me.

SILY: Was she aware of your work before the recommendation?

AW: No, she wasn’t. It was just that someone who was familiar with my work had her listen to some samples, and she was intrigued enough by the samples to want to see what I’d do.

SILY: Do you know what specifically you had done that led to the recommendation?

AW: No, I don’t know.

SILY: Had you seen the film without any music before scoring those couple scenes?

AW: I had seen the movie with the temp track on. All pre-existing music.

SILY: How did you approach the two scenes you tested the waters with? Was it your normal approach to scoring?

AW: Yeah, I don’t think I approached it differently--capture the energy and the emotion. Ultimately, Lulu had in mind for the movie a very particular kind of sound and tone. Even though I got the job off of scoring those two scenes, what we ended up having in those two scenes was not at all related to what I had written [for the tryout].

SILY: How would you characterize what she had in mind?

AW: As we were starting, we had a lot of conversations about tone. We were trying to find this particular balance of emotion. The story itself is very small. Every family has experienced this--not exactly with the whole lying and fake wedding thing, but every family has experienced loss or grief and has lost a grandparent. So the stakes are incredibly small. It’s a grandparent dying, which is what grandparents do. But for [the family in the film], the stakes are so high, the added tension of the fact that they’re maintaining this lie. So we wanted it to feel more dramatic and heavier to play against that. Two things we wanted to incorporate to accomplish that were using classical music--capital “c” classical music--and for it to be very vocal-heavy. A big, dramatic choir that would play against what’s happening on screen. So she was originally planning on just hiring an arranger to do vocal arrangements of Vivaldi and stuff, and that would be the score. Ultimately, we decided to make something that was unique for the film that we could build and expand on rather than try to shoehorn in something pre-existing.

SILY: On the soundtrack, there are three tracks credited to someone else. Can you tell me a little about each?

AW: The first one on there is a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Come Healing”. Lulu had the idea to use that song in the movie from the get-go. But it did feel kind of ridiculous for this female-centric movie to suddenly have gravely Leonard Cohen. It didn’t fit; it was jarring. We wanted a cover that was more vocal-heavy and string-heavy to fit with the score, and a female vocalist. We ended up finding this cover by Elayna Boynton, who is a phenomenal gospel singer based out of L.A. She has a bunch of really great albums on her own. She’s written songs for movies before; she has a credits song in Django Unchained. Lulu actually found her by just watching covers of “Come Healing” on YouTube, and there was a video of Elayna doing it at church. In terms of the arrangement for that, I produced the recording with Elayna and did a version that matched the rest of our score.

The second song, “Caro Mio Ben”, is a pretty famous aria. There’s a scene in the wedding where family members are going up and singing songs, and there’s karaoke at the wedding. One woman sings “Caro Mio Ben” ,and it’s juxtaposed with a slow motion montage of other things happening at the wedding: the family playing drinking games, the groom getting wasted and breaking down into tears, stuff like that. It’s a very funny juxtaposition over the anarchy of what’s going on. We recorded it with a wonderful opera singer and her accompanist, but Lulu wanted something different with the accompaniment. She used to play piano, so she ended up going to the studio and recording the piano part herself. I think it’s kind of cool she ended up performing on the soundtrack itself.

The last one was added after my involvement. That plays during the credits. Similarly, because of the sense of community that the voices provide, and the karaoke, it starts with an Italian cover of Harry Nilsson[’s “Without You”] and breaks down into a full karaoke version of it, which I think Lulu and 10-15 other people recorded after a shot or two of tequila. One of the music supervisors took a big passenger van up to Woodstock, where the recording studio was, and they passed out shots and sang it.

SILY: How do you go about naming the tracks?

AW: The tracks were named afterwards, of course. When I was working on them, they were more functionally named: “M1″, “M2″, “M3″, that kind of think. Before the album, me and Lulu just had a phone call debating what would work, what would flow nicely.

SILY: Sometimes, it’s something thematic, sometimes, it’s “this piece of music takes place during this specific scene where this happens.”

AW: There was a fair amount of that. The first track, “The Lie”, is the first scene where they decide they’re going to lie to their grandma. “Family” is slow-motion the whole family walking together. Most of the time, it was fairly literal.

SILY: To what extent does this score function as a separate piece from the film?

AW: There are a couple cues on the soundtrack that are variations of what appear in the film, but it didn’t make sense to have two 45-second things on an album that were practically identical. So I kind of combined them and worked out a transition between the two to make a piece that someone could listen to. An example of that would be track 3, “Changchung”, where there are two distinct halves but similar material. We spent a lot of time working on the sequencing, making sure it felt like an album, not standalone tracks. I think there’s even one cue on there that ended up getting cut from the movie, but we liked the music, so we put it back on the album!

SILY: What other projects do you have coming up?

AW: I have a few films that are starting now. I’m working on another solo instrumental record. But at this point, I just hope people decide to go out and see The Farewell!

[thesinglesjukebox]

THE NATIONAL - YOU HAD YOUR SOUL WITH YOU

[5.20]

Ooh, you had your soul with you...

Joshua Copperman: I Am Easy To Find is the most challenging The National have been to date, for both intentional reasons and some less intentional ones. All the hallmarks of a great National song are here: production loaded with ear candy (like that guitar line or the third time they've abruptly entered a string interlude), Bryan Devendorf's torrential downpour of snares. But Gail Ann Dorsey merely fills in for Matt Berninger on the bridge rather than complementing him, and the lyrics, written by Matt's wife Carin Besser with Thomas Bartlett, sound increasingly like self-parody -- "I had only one last feather left/I wore it on the island of my head" is like someone threw Boxer into a neuralnet. High Violet has aged well because its songs were whittled down into their best possible forms, the band's internal tension giving way to external effortlessness. I Am Easy To Find has elements of that effortlessness, but this first single is one of a few moments where high-budget gimmicks just barely elevate mid-tier National songs. Yet, they do. [8]

Alfred Soto: The National record music for men who order Pink Rabbits on weekends and smoke too many cigarettes when their wives "let" them go to concerts. No National single lacks for odd hooks: here, the distorted guitar figure ping-ponging between speakers, an ace string section interlude, and the usual Bryan Devendorf kinetics behind the drum kit. Momentum and an attractively meaningless title -- ho hum, another National single. [6]

Tim de Reuse: So, what is this -- rather, what was this supposed to be? Dry, cluttered electronics under heavily-compressed drums under a soppy string arrangement under a nursery-rhyme melody: none of these pieces fit together. The more you listen, the more incomprehensible details float groggily to the surface. Why does it feel like they forgot to unmute the bass track before exporting? Why are the hi-hats exiled to the edges of human perception? Why feature a guest vocalist if you're not going to let her do anything? Perhaps the most confusing part is that The National could've easily continued selling out stadiums for decades to come by just writing High Violet over and over again, which shouldn't be hard given that from 2005 to 2013 they basically released one really good album four times with increasing amounts of reverb. That's not the outcome I dream about for a band I have this much emotional investment in, but I'd rather daydream about that than listen to this awkward pileup. [2]

Thomas Inskeep: This doesn't sound like anything I've heard recently; it sounds original, the sound of a band in the studio doing lots of things they've never tried before because they've realized they can. And on this song at least, the National can -- this is dynamite, especially drum-wise. And that's before the unexpected vocal appearance of Gail Ann Dorsey, whose rich, full voice initially sounds as if dropped in from another song. And her harmonizing with Matt Berninger is gorgeous. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Matt Berninger's rich baritone was always one of The National's big draws, or at least one of the only things that made them stand out. The other: Bryan Devendorf's ability to make his drums sound simultaneously austere and elastic. Removing one of these elements isn't a complete dealbreaker, but the skittering electronics here are shallow ornamentations that show how the band is running out of ideas. [3]

Vikram Joseph: Bryan Devendorf's percussion has always been the National's secret weapon, giving their songs a skittish, propulsive anxiety that tessellates perfectly with Matt Berninger's strange metaphors and sad non-sequiturs. But despite its kineticism, it feels effortless, an integral part of the song. On "You Had Your Soul With You", the percussion becomes a jarring, distracting sideshow, as if it and the jittery synths are pursing each other around the back of a stage while a key expository scene unfolds in the foreground. It's no coincidence that the strongest part by far is the lush, string-soaked middle eight, where guest vocalist Gail Ann Dorsey delivers the best line in the song: "You have no idea how hard I died when you left." Her vocals fold beautifully into Berninger's, and the many female guest slots on the forthcoming album bode well (who can forget the shatteringly beautiful duet between Berninger and Annie Clark on their cover of "Sleep All Summer"?). The band's clumsy, scattershot use of electronics, however, does not. [5]

Josh Love: I feel like a hypocrite pushing back against this brighter, more dynamic iteration of The National after I'd gotten so ground down by their miserablist shades of gray that I didn't even bother giving their last album a fair shake (and I counted myself a big fan even up to and including Trouble Will Find Me). Still, "You Had Your Soul With You" just sounds like Vampire Weekend's or St. Vincent's nervy, busy aesthetics lazily grafted onto Matt Berninger's solemn vocal burr. [5]

Katherine St Asaph: A genuinely striking intro -- those 15 seconds of jerky guitar panning are both arresting and a great test of whether one of your earbuds has crapped out -- built on the watery foundation of a song by Coldplay, or for that matter The National. The former sinks into the mush; the latter twitches with the fripperies too much to swoon. [5]

Iris Xie: "You Had Your Soul With You" just reminds me of the discomfort of trying to listen through some of my brother's early '00s alt rock as a 10-year-old, and trying to understand what was so good and "adult" about it, and was I missing something? (The answer is no.) This sounds like someone trying to make a drum and bass track, but with... actual instruments? The sensation of listening to this song is like watching a Windows Media Player equalizer move and shudder around, and you pay more attention to the little spiky discrepancies than the song. I do like the post-chorus instrumental where the discordant drum work suddenly opens up, like the sun after the rain has ended, but then the muddiness resumes. Combine this with a smooth but slightly suffocated delivery, and I feel messier and scattered than before I started listening to the song. I guess that suits the lyrics, but the song sounds unclear, even to itself. [5]

Iain Mew: For all the superficial electronic additions, it sounds vital in a classic, immediately familiar way that The National haven't in a while. Matt Berninger is once again a man suspended in crisis, picking his way between collapsing velvet walls in total calm while the drums tell of secret adrenaline surges. Well, the first half does anyway. The second half is new in a different way, with its open expanses, Gail Ann Dorsey guest vocals and accelerating string arrangement that had me searching "You Had Your Soul With You" + "Owen Pallett." They each work, but the resulting feeling is a bit awkward: two contrasting styles of "return to form," squashed into one track. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[ulfwolf]

Moby Grape -- Musing 188

The cruel fate   of Moby Grape beclouds the best   band out of   the sixties

I am no musicologist, nor am I a sixties’ bands historian, but I know what music I like now and I knew what music I liked back then and when it comes to Moby Grape, these two likes very much coincide. I still, fifty plus years on, listen to them, often, enraptured, amazed.

To me, Moby Grape (and many scholars and band historians agree) was the best band to come out of San Francisco in the sixties, if not the best band out of that decade, period—save The Beatles.

The band had a unique configuration with bass and drums and three guitars: Bob Miller, who was, and still is, an excellent blues guitarist; Skip Spence, who was more of a renaissance man (which his stint as Jefferson Airplane’s original drummer bears witness to)—not an overly skilled but yet very innovative guitarist; and Peter Lewis, the finger picking folk guy with the great, deep, vibrating voice.

Bob Mosley was the bass player and Don Stevenson rounded out the band on drums.

Another thing that set them apart from the crowd was that all five members were lead vocalists, and good at it—making for, yes, amazing harmonies.

Their debut album, the eponymous “Moby Grape” made its way to Sweden in the summer of 1967 and I bought it the moment it arrived in my record store (on the recommendation of I no longer remember who).

Once I had listened through it, it was the album (LPs we called them back then, Long Playing records, vinyl of course, and analog of course) I played the most (along with Sgt. Pepper, which, as an aside, was released on the same day as “Moby Grape”) out of my, at that time rather small collection of 30 albums or so, could not afford more.

As another aside: an album at that time cost 25 kronor, about five bucks in 1967 money. Consider that my rent was thirteen bucks: this should put things in perspective: Albums, in other words, on my budget, were very expensive.

That said, my little collection included The Beatles (naturally), Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Country Joe and the Fish, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and the other usual sixties’ suspects—but “Moby Grape” occupied pride of place.

I still love this album as much as I did back then and I am very glad, these days, to read that many music writers agree: it was the best album out of San Francisco, period.

Why then, isn’t Moby Grape a household name?

:

Turning to Wikipedia, who has a better grasp on the details than I do:

“Moby Grape's success was significantly impeded by decades-long legal disputes with their former manager, Matthew Katz.

“Legal difficulties originated shortly after the group's formation, when Katz insisted that an additional provision be added to his management contract, giving him ownership of the group name (my emphasis).

“At the time, various group members were indebted to Katz, who had been paying for apartments and various living costs prior to the release of the group's first album. Despite objecting, the group members signed, based in part on the impression that there would be no further financial support from Katz unless they did so.

“Neil Young, then of Buffalo Springfield, was in the room at the time, and kept his head down, playing his guitar, saying nothing. According to Peter Lewis, ‘I think Neil knew, even then, that this was the end. We had bought into this process that we should have known better than to buy into.’

“The dispute with Katz became more acute after the group members' rights to their songs, as well as their own name, were signed away in 1973, in a settlement made without their knowledge between Katz and the band’s manager, and producer at the time, David Rubinson.

“This was also a settlement made at a time when Bob Mosley and Skip Spence were generally recognized as being legally incapacitated due to the effects of schizophrenia.”

According to Jeff Tamarkin, a music historian: “The Grape's saga is one of squandered potential, absurdly misguided decisions, bad luck, blunders and excruciating heartbreak, all set to the tune of some of the greatest rock and roll ever to emerge from San Francisco. Moby Grape could have had it all, but they ended up with nothing, and less.”

IN my view, the spirit of the band did not survive their first visit to New York (to record their second, not nearly as good, album, where Skip Spence, gripped by drug-induce madness, sundered it forever.

Moby Grape was never Moby Grape after that.

:

To stoned me (hashish my vehicle of choice) in my small, cold Stockholm apartment, listening to Moby Grape on my surprisingly good (father-bought) stereo, they were gods.

I’d listen to, say, “Indifference” and take in the album sleeve photos (especially the great live-on-stage shot on the back cover), reifying my amazing musical heroes: no song sounded better, no voices more amazing, no rhythm more driving, no flight less earth-bound.

Imagine then the contrast when, in the late 90s, I read online that not only was Skip Spence incarcerated in a mental hospital somewhere in San Jose, but also that Bob Mosely was homeless and derelict in the San Diego area.

Back to Wikipedia:

“In 1996, three of Mosley's fellow band members, Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis and Don Stevenson, in part reformed Moby Grape with the objective of helping Mosley recover emotionally and financially.”

Later, Bob Mosley described the circumstances: “In 1996, Peter Lewis picked me up along the side of a San Diego freeway where I was living, to tell me a ruling by San Francisco Judge Garcia gave Moby Grape their name back. At that, I was ready to go to work again.”

Earlier attempts by Moby Grape band members to help Mosley out of homelessness had been less successful.

Peter Lewis described one such attempt: “We went to find Bob, and there he was, living in this cardboard box. He had these friends, the squirrels and the lizards that he had. And I brought this guitar, cost me a hundred bucks, you know, and I left that with him and a tape of Moby Grape songs and a tape recorder with batteries in it and some extra batteries.

“So, the next weekend, I came back, and there was no guitar, but the cassette case, well, he had tried to tear all the tape out of it and had left it, you know, down there in the bushes. And that's all that was left. Bob was gone.”

:

Anybody interested in the cruel fate of Moby Grape can Google them and find a fair amount written about their ups and downs. All I want said here is that from a young Swede’s viewpoint the band walked divine streets up there with our Maker, His favorite band. My life back then would have been much less without them.

And then to look back—and it has been fifty years and more since then, of course—and realize that they were just humans, just like me, and that they probably have suffered a lot more than I have.

Some sort of cosmic unfairness is how it strikes me today.

::

P.S. If you like what you’ve read here and would like to contribute to the creative motion, as it were, you can do so via PayPal: here.

[loveisthewei]

am i the only one whos gotten over the fact that jonghyun and samuel didnt make it

its been three days and some of y'all need to chill.

like saying you’re not gonna stan wanna one just because your fave isnt in the final 11 is really immature. sure its not fair but the deed is done. the voting is over. yes, i too was angry when samuel and jonghyun didn’t make it, but the show has helped both of the two out greatly. nu'est’s fancafe has doubled in size from 25K to 50K, their albums ranked really high on MelOn Chart yesterday, and their youtube account recently gained a HUGE amount of subscribers.

and for samuel, a lot of people have realized what he can bring to the table talent wise. he’s improved a lot since the first episode. he’s even getting a debut pretty soon so calm down, he’s gonna be on the stage on day.

and saying that you won’t stan wanna one because your fave is in their is really immature (like I said before), everyone worked hard, those 11 deserve those spots. saying everyone on the lineup is talentless unlike samuel and jonghyun, is very rude. the vocalists in wanna one are very stable, the dancers are very talented, and the rappers can keep a good flow.

if samuel was mixed and that was the reason why knetz did not vote for him, then he would not have made it into the top 20. and it all depends on who catches your eye. at first i thought youngmin wasn’t that good of a rapper, but now he’s one of my favorites since the show ended. Korean fans and International fans have different tastes. when somi won season 1, International fans didn’t see what the hype was all about with somi. saying knetz are “blind to talent, or worship the hell out of white people” is prejudicing them. some knetz voted for samuel, and he made it to the top 20 because they liked either his charms, his talent, or his appearance (charms and looks are two different things).

getting mad about the fact that international fans didn’t get to vote is silly in my opinion. the voting system has always been “national producers”, meaning Korean fans can vote and that has been established since the first season, and international fans didn’t complain about that the first time. yes, they get a world tour, but you don’t even know the countries they’re going to. maybe it’s all going to be in Asia, who knows.

the lineup itself is really good in my opinion. i’m anticipating their debut album. and also that petition (it's not written well in my opinion) thats going around with like 10K signatures needs to stop its cringy and don’t ever go that far ever again.

[rockrevoltmagazine]

INTERVIEW: AARON LEE OF KILLIN' CANDACE

Hollywood’s Killin’ Candace play a style of hard rock they like to call Love/Hate Rock ‘N’ Roll that is a blend of rock, punk and melodic metal styles: think Murderdolls in a dirty brawl with Static-X. Killin’ Candace is currently in the studio working on their forthcoming, debut record, titled Straight From The Underground. Here is British transplant and Killin’ Candace vocalist Aaron Lee.

Describe the driving force behind Killin’ Candace and how do you harness that force and deliver it to your fans?

Pure passion and realism. I write for myself, as well as writing for everyone else out there too, but I write in a way that I know people can connect to the music and lyrical content quite naturally. It’s all about that connection and energy between the music and everyone consuming it, so I always try to deliver the songs with honesty and the right amount of emotion to cut through. What was the process of finding the exact tones and pitches of your instruments before landing on the Killin’ Candace sound? I fell in love with Blackstar Amps many years ago (and yes you may say I am biased being a Brit!), but the balls, power and punch that Blackstar rigs offer is what really contributed and helped mould the band’s high-energy sound. Our tuning stemmed from me starting to write a more “angst”-like sound, so I decided to de-tune to drop C# rather than continuing to write in E-flat standard. It bought a whole new feel and energy to the sound that I was trying to create. It’s the right amount of gnarly, accompanied by the right amount of melody (I think?!) – but not too much experimentation was done…I still think of Killin’ Candace as more of a straight-up, back to basics hard rock band. I put pen to paper, we plug in, find a nice raunchy tone and let the beast roar. Are there any rather odd gigs you’ve performed at? Would you ever do an odd gig again?

With this band no, not yet, but people reading this send in your requests and we’ll consider the best suggestions!

Do you have someone that was a huge inspiration to you that made you want to be in a band?

A lot of my influences were bands that had a pretty bold, prominent image and sound. I always admired the rebels and the bands’ that played their hearts out live. I’d say I was most inspired in my teens and at that point music saw a lot of bands like Marilyn Manson at their peak, so he for sure was a big influence on me. Also stand out bands like the Murderdolls, Dope, Static X – I really gravitated towards that aggressive, in your face sound – so those types of bands really paved the way for me wanting to be in a band and write music. You’re working on your new album at the moment.  How is it progressing?

It’s going great. It’s an interesting and exciting time for the band, because even in the space of a year I feel as if the material and sound is evolving into something that will for sure turn a few heads. The album is definitely a work in progress, but I feel as if we’ve found our niche and swagger to where the sound and style definitely set us apart from most of the current acts, so I’m excited to bring a new fresh sound to the table.

Where are you recording, who is producing and what is the expected drop time frame?

We are recording the album at Stygian Sound, at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. My friend and producer Alex Crescioni has a studio setup within the studio complex there, so that’s where the magic is and has been happening for the past few months! I don’t want to rush the release, but the way things are coming together I’d say April 2020 is a fair estimate. Please name some of the highlights of the album so far and what song are you most proud of?

The title track #STRAIGHTFROMTHEUNDERGROUND is a very driving, upbeat and high-energy anthem. I want to accompany this song with a promotional music video because it has such a great energy and I can already envision it having a full-on, “punk”-like rebellion type vibe to it. The song is in that vein of “let’s take down the system, and take back our power”.

The song I’m most proud of (that came out of nowhere but will add a new feel to our sound) is a song I recently wrote called “Indigo” You might even say it’s risky including it on the album, but I’m all about versatility and doing what comes natural to me and my writing. I think it will also demonstrate dynamics as a songwriter, so I hope it gets received well ‘cause I think it’s one of the catchiest riffs I’ve ever written. Who have been your favorite band(s) to perform with?

Our debut show we actually played with David Silveria (ex-Korn drummer)’s new band BIAS, those guys are killer. We also played a show in Downtown L.A. with DeepDrain and Uncompliant – two great local acts to keep an eye out for! To be honest we haven’t prioritized shows so much this year due to making the album the priority, so writing and being in the studio is pretty much how we intend to spend the summer and the rest of the year, that way we can gear up for a solid push in 2020. What is your favorite part about performing in front of an audience?

I think the truth to that is that every musician is always eager and curious to see what kind of feedback/response they get from a crowd. But for me it’s all about that collaborative energy of everybody in one place, feeding off of the energy of that universal language that is music. What has been the biggest obstacle you run into when performing/getting ready to perform?

Sometimes the band before us taking forever to get off the stage and cutting into our set time lol. But in all seriousness – I had a nightmare with the lineup for the longest time, it was hard to get people involved in the project until there was any solid content and product out there – so for me I had to invest a lot of time and energy into the band before we even hit a stage or announced shows. I built the band up from scratch and have always tried to put out a sound that is unique to its own, but my hardest task has been solidifying a lineup. That was a big reason why I decided to focus on content and recording the debut album, because once that’s done it puts us in a better position to market and promote the band. Has your music career given you any opportunities that you normally wouldn’t have?

I love that music gives you the opportunity to connect, network and experience different emotions with different people. It really is a language that brings people together. Usually traveling is a perk too, with touring, so even though I enjoy traveling and experiencing different places in my personal time, I love that aspect of being a musician and that you can get to visit and see so many different countries, towns/cities, and connect with so many different people from all walks of life. I feel as if many musicians are free spirits at heart, so the road can easily feel like home. I like the adventure of traveling so I think that for me is one of the more rewarding opportunities that comes with being a musician. What do you do when outside of the music?

I assist my partner with her clothing brand/business, SinScissors Boutique. We’ve had the pleasure of making wardrobe for In This Moment, Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Jake Pitts (Black Veil Brides) and more. We also lead a pretty active lifestyle; enjoy hiking, being out in nature, cooking and generally embracing the West coast!

Our drummer Vinnie is a full-time drum tech + coordinator at a music institution in Dallas, TX. What’s up next for Killin’ Candace and what are the plans for the rest of the year and 2020?

As mentioned earlier I’ve decided to hold off on local shows and focus on the album. There may be one or two more local LA shows before the year is out (to promote the release and share the new material), but the goal and priority is to make sure that #STRAIGHTFROMTHEUNDERGROUND is ready to go for next year…so on that note we’ll see ya on the other side! ;p

INTERVIEW: AARON LEE OF KILLIN’ CANDACE was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

[ihouseucom]

60 Seconds with... Est8

#housemusic Back with another stunning collaboration with Spiritchaser and vocalist Emily Cook, we grab 60 Seconds with the talented purveyor of emotive dance music, Est8.  How did you first get into producing music and what was your first release? My first commercial production was a remix of Blu Cantrell’s “Breathe” (Ed Funk and Drok mix). I got an early pre-release Acapella and restructured the vocal, laid down and new bassline and myself and Ed worked on the beats with some vocal edits from Askillz, BMG/Arista took the mix and used it on the flip side of the release which went No.1 in the UK in 2003. Prior to that I’d been drumming in various bands, signed a deal with Some Bizarre and worked as a session musician. Describe your sound in 5 words… I look for empathy. Your music is quite emotive and balearic, who or what inspires your productions? It’s a cliché, but that is a difficult question! Growing up in the Great Britain I’ve been exposed to a huge variety of amazing sounds and music. I’ve been influenced by different music and artists at different stages in my life. I find myself enjoying stuff I used to hate and visa versa. As a teenager I loved LTJ Bukem and the D&B sound, the smokers delight album, Saint Germain…lots…and lots. Also, a huge amount of influence from my closest peers, friends & family, and those passionate about art, design, science & Music, life and creativity. Your new single with Spiritchaser ft Emily Cook ‘Because I Knew' has just come out on Guess Records, which we love, how does it sound? Thank you. Hopefully like a record that that relates and, provokes an emotive reaction. Emily has a soft and beautiful vocal that compliments a delicate and beautiful song. There are also remixes from Bamo and N’Dinga Gaba, what did they bring to the table and are you happy with the results? Love them both. Bamo’s got a great minimal vibe on the go and N’Dinga has taken a totally different and excellent twist on the song. It’s always exciting to hear fresh approaches to original ideas! You’ve also made a solo remix yourself, what can we expect to hear? I’ve tried to connect with and support the vocal. The lyrics are written by Bamo and always come from the heart, so I’ve tried to create a vibe that lets them speak. How did you first link up with Spiritchaser aka Richard and Mark and what’s your relationship with the Duffnote and Guess labels? I’ve been friends Richard and Mark for years. Myself and Richard set up Duffnote in 2003. Mark and Richard already had a bunch of great releases as Spiritchaser and we launched Guess Records a few years later. Myself and Rich both love South American and African rhythms and vibes so set up One51 as a vehicle for that style of music as well. Our first production together as One51 was called Si Weka and featured a vocal from a good friend BK - we were going to use this as the first release on our new label but Marc Pomeroy and Brian Tappert heard the release and signed it in for Soulfuric Deep. So tell us more about the Duffnote label and the label’s key artists and releases? Wow, there’s a lot… Duffnote’s sound is heavily based around Richard’s Soulful sound, both original and remixes. Nearly all our relases feature a remix by Richard, he’s a machine when it comes to production, but one with soul and passion, lots of it! Artists we’ve had the pleasure of working with include Danny Clark, Justin Michael, Christian Alvarez too many to list here (see repertoire list of Guess, One51 and Duffnote on Traxsource) . As a company we delve into other production sounds too and have worked on music for various TV, Games and Film. More recently we’ve produced music for Bear Grylls, CSI, BBC and Sky Sports. Our Publishing has been looked after via Bucks Music Group in Camden since 2004 and they’re always throwing alternative challenges our way. You’ve worked on a few releases with Spiritchaser and also Emily Cook including 'Yesterday’s Gone’, ’Two Sides’, 'Liftin’ Me High’ and 'These Tears’, have you got a particular favourite?  Yes, has to be “These Tears”. I love Bamo’s lyrics and the original mix. I finished my mix and played it for the first time to him on the way to see Richard perform for the launch of his Solo Album “In Time” at the Jazz Cafe. Bamo’s reaction was “[Intro] Yep…[drop] yep…[Piano re-intro]…Yep…love it! Nice one mate!” The record went on to be one of our most successful to date achieving No.1 in South Africa in 2013 and being signed to Sony. And then re-used by Kwesta on his No.1 Single “Spirit” this year. When In the studio, have you got any rituals or bad studio habits when writing your music? Rituals, keep things tidy, keep things clean. Bad habits, probably jamming over a chord sequences when I should be developing and arranging the initial idea…seriously…I’ve wasted hours playing about! Any plans for an Est8 album in the near future? Yeh, maybe! What was the first dance record you bought? When I was 10 living in Redbourne in Hertfordshire, I walked in to my local independent Record store and purchased a record I’d heard on TV; Chakka Chan “I Feel For You” – I purchased it mainly for Melle Mel’s amazing intro rap, as me and my mates were very in to the Electro Vinyl releases, breakdancing and early forms House Music that was making its way over from the USA. Stevie Wonders Harp solo in that record absolutely influences me to this day - Richard and I gave a massive nod to that in our version of Tony Vass’ - Fly Me Higher (Duffnote). Who was the last DJ you saw playing and where? Probably Earnshaw and Bamo at a bar! I don’t get out as much as I used to… What do you like to listen to when you're not in work mode? I’m very Eclectic nowadays. I often let playlists throw tunes at me. Here’s a few artists; The Cult, Danger Mouse, The Clash, Ninja Tune, Wretch 32, Zero 7, Jungle, Gorgan City, Jonsi, Zack Hemsey, Childish Gambino and lots more. What else should we be looking out for from you in the next few months? We’re working on a fair few projects right now… watch this space! 'Because I Knew' will be released on Traxsource promo on May 11th / Full release May 28th on 2018 on Guess Records. https://www.facebook.com/est8music/ notification email: adam@ihouseu.comMedia Images: Soundcloud:  http://dlvr.it/QSWzRR

[sinceileftyoublog]

Susanna Interview: Pure Piano Poems

Photo by Martin Rustad Johansen

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Over the past couple years, medieval painter Hieronymous Bosch and 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire have intersected in the vision of prolific Norwegian vocalist and composer Susanna Wallumrød, who has now released two separate records inspired by the works of both. But whereas last year she interpreted the strange and majestic Bosch works with a band, she gives Baudelaire’s work more space to breathe. With just her voice and a piano, the aptly titled Baudelaire & Piano, out this past Friday digitally and on vinyl, CD, and cassette via her own label SusannaSonata, is a collection of poems from Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil (as translated by Anthony Mortimer), delivered by Susanna in song, set to lilting, steady, solemn piano riffs. But don’t let the starkness and minimalism of the arrangements fool you--with it comes the potential to add on. Playing in Norway, who has opened up to allow live performance, Susanna pre-premiered the songs at this month’s Punkt festival in Kristiansand and last night in Oslo, with just voice and piano. But later this month, at the Henie Onstad Art Center in Bærum, she’s presenting a more fleshed-out experience. Susanna will be joined by tape recorder composer Stina Moltu on commission for this unique performance, which will also include costume design and scenography from Thale Kvam Olsen, lighting design by Gard Gitlestad, sound design by Ingar Hunskaar, video from Pekka Stokke, and further photography and video material from Carsten Aniksdal. It’s the ultimate manifestation of these works, and one that potentially previews more performances and songs to come.

I spoke with Susanna over Skype earlier this summer about her creative approach to her recent records, how she’s adapting Baudelaire & Piano to the stage, and her concerns about the livelihood of artists due to COVID-19, even in a comparatively progressive country. Read our conversation below.

Since I Left You: The past two records were inspired by specific figures. Did you take a different approach responding to the written word and including the subject’s written word as opposed to responding to painting?

Susanna: Yes, even though it’s kind of similar, it feels like it’s much more locked down when I use someone else’s words. It feels more similar to maybe doing interpretations of other people’s songs, almost. There are parts of it that I haven’t made myself.

SILY: How long had this album been in the works?

Susanna: For some time now. I think I wrote the first song in 2017. It just started out with a few songs. I liked them so much I wanted to make it a new project.

SILY: Chronologically, you had the previous album last year and this one this year. Was that just a coincidence, or is this part of a larger trend of works you’re doing?

Susanna: I’m not sure right now, but I think it’s some kind of result of getting some commissioned projects around 2016-17. I sort of felt like, “Okay, I can really go in a different direction now.” To see if I find something else that I can write about or make music to. The album that came out last year was written in 2016, and about a few months later, I started to write this Baudelaire thing. It feels like there are several things happening in a more creative place.

SILY: Was this one a commissioned work as well?

Susanna: Not specifically, but it has turned out to be that. I’m doing a special concert performance in the fall based on this material from the album and also more elements, both music composed for tape recorders and scenography, costumes, light, video. A whole set of other elements supposed to go together with this music.

SILY: The recorded part of it is way more minimal than your previous record--it’s just you and piano, down to the album title. Did you make that choice to keep the emphasis on the words?

Susanna: Yeah, I think there are so many layers and pictures and different moods in these poems, so I just wanted to give them lots of space to exist just the way that I made them. At least I wanted to start out there, to present them in that sparse way, and my plan for the poems is to take them with me in bigger settings after a while. We’ll see what that will be. I want to play these songs in other settings, maybe next year. For now, it’s all about the piano and the voice.

SILY: When you do your performance later, how are you going to go about still trying to maintain the emphasis on the poetry with all those additional elements?

Susanna: Well, the idea for that performance is to make sort of a setting to present the poems for the audience to take in in a slightly different way than a normal concert, because I want to make the whole room about the experience of this poetry. So it’s not just a normal stage and the audience. It’s more like we’re spread out in one big room, and there’s gonna be all kinds of visual elements surrounding us. Hopefully, emphasizing the both the songs and the poetry. There may be some recitals of the poetry. Just different elements linked together.

SILY: Overall, for this project, how do you decide how you’re going to sing the words and what piano melodies are going to go along with them?

Susanna: It is a little bit hard to answer because it’s not like I know all the poems from [The Flowers of Evil] very well. I just started to read, and I felt sort of a connection to certain poems. That’s kind of similar to the Bosch paintings, because for some poems, it felt like, “Oh, here’s a story with certain moods or pictures opening up to me.” I just felt like singing the words, so that’s how it started out, with just some chords or a riff or a mood. Or, I could quite easily hear a melody for the words and build it around that. It’s hard to explain.

SILY: When was the first time in your life you recall coming across Baudelaire’s words?

Susanna: I think that must have been around the time when I made Flower of Evil back in 2008. That was actually through a painting that was inspired by Baudelaire poetry. That’s how I found out about Baudelaire. Of course, I had heard his name before, but I didn’t really know so much about his work. That was the first time. It’s been random occasions where I’ve gotten to know a little bit. Diamanda Galás has done music to his poetry. There’s also a really cool record from the 60′s or 70′s by a woman called Ruth White called Flowers of Evil. It’s an electronic album with freaky recitals and lots of cool 60′s synthesizers.

SILY: Do you think the mood of this album pretty well matches the mood of the poetry itself? Or were you trying to create contrasts?

Susanna: I think this is my interpretation. The poetry is still open for interpretation by anyone who wants to read it and take it in. This is just one way to present it. It’s a little bit similar to cover songs, because it’s material people know, and they already have a perception of what it is, so it can go along with that or be sort of disturbing to people that someone’s bringing something else to the table.

SILY: How did you go about deciding the sequencing of the songs?

Susanna: That was a process that just lasted for some time after I recorded the songs. I started to listen back. I was trying to sort of make a track record that felt like a story that was evolving, but I also see each song as a separate story. I don’t know, exactly. [laughs] I do know that the concert performance will be in a different track order. It depends a little bit on the setting.

SILY: You have a lot of flexibility there because even though it’s just you and your piano, there’s a lot of variance within the songs in terms of tempo and the piano lines themselves. “The Enemy” and “Mediation” revolve around a repeated line, whereas others seem to be a bit more swaying in their melody. “The Vampire” has stop-starts, and there’s staccato in “A Pagan’s Prayer”. Was instrumental variation important to you?

Susanna: Yeah, I think so. That was part of the decision for making this album just about the piano and the vocals. The songs turned out the way that they did. It feels very much like each song is a separate world or identity. It feels very much to me that the piano voice is an important voice together with my singing. That’s how I wanted to present it.

SILY: Do you think in the future you could ostensibly present these songs along with other songs from your catalog, in a live setting?

Susanna: I’m hoping to be able to mix them up with my own songs. I think in the beginning I’ll probably play this program at different literature festivals and settings linked to the literature world. But I’m hoping to actually include them in my set.

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

Susanna: All the drawings for the record and singles and everything are by Marjorie Cameron. She’s an American artist. She’s not alive anymore, so I’ve gotten the permission to use her art. She’s a favorite of mine; she was sort of an underground artist. She did paintings and drawings and small movies and things like that. There’s not much production of hers that’s around anymore, but there’s some. There’s an archive that has collected many of her things, so I’ve been able to get the permission to use her things. I think it goes very well with Baudelaire’s work.

SILY: You have these upcoming shows, but you had to cancel your dates through July. Would a live stream be of interest to you?

Susanna: I’m not sure. I haven’t been really keen on that idea. I think it’s a hard format to get through. But I’m constantly considering the possibilities that come along. Maybe I’ll do something in the fall, but right now, I haven’t planned anything. There were a lot of live streamed concerts in the beginning here, and the festivals are doing a small audience and then going online. I think I’d prefer to have an audience in the same room with me.

SILY: Did your government give artists a fair amount of money?

Susanna: There were different solutions for that for small businesses, and money you could apply for. They’ve recently made available some grants that we can apply for. So there will be some money. I guess it’s tough for many of us, but at least we have some kind of things that we can apply for, so that’s good.

SILY: Sounds like still not enough or ideally what it should be.

Susanna: It’s an uncertain situation. It’s hard not to worry about not just this year but the years to come, what’ll happen to the venues and places we usually play. I don’t feel very certain that we’ll have the same amount of places to play and options when we come out on the other side of this situation.

SILY: Or at least ones not owned by large conglomerates.

Susanna: Absolutely...I’m also kind of depending on going abroad Norway to play. I travel a lot outside of Norway in Europe and sometimes other places, but that’s not so easy now either...I don’t think I’ll plan for anything abroad this year, but maybe in a year or two.

SILY: What else is next for you?

Susanna: This project will be my main thing for a while. That’s what I’ve planned for. I’m going to write some more Baudelaire songs and take it with me in other settings, with other instruments and ways to present this material. That’s what I’m going to work with for the next year, so I’m excited about that.

SILY: Are these new songs from the same collection?

Susanna: All are from Flowers of Evil, but I’m not sure exactly which ones at this point.

SILY: Will they also be just your voice and piano?

Susanna: I’m not sure yet. Maybe they’ll come in different formats. Piano, vocals, and other instrumentation. At least that’s what I’m hoping to do.

SILY: What have you been listening to, reading, or watching lately?

Susanna: I’m very much into a French artist called Delphine Dora. She’s making a lot of really interesting [music]. She released one album earlier this year that I’ve been listening to a lot. She’s quite often releasing new things through Bandcamp, different kinds of collaborations or stuff she makes on her own.