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Blouse. Clairo
Clairo is Claire Cottrill from Atlanta, Georgia. She writes music since she was 13 and now at 23 is ready to release her second full lenght album, 'Sling'. Blouse is a single from this album, a single on which Lorde, no less, sings some background vocals. Blouse is a small, fragile song. A kind of 'Eleanor Rigby', with the full fledged orchestra stripped away, replaces by an acoustic guitar and some violins. Clairo sings about the delicate music with a soft voice. Nothing else is aimed for than the impact of the song itself. She obviously is not afraid to bare her feelings. "Why do I tell you how I feel? When you're just looking down my blouse", she sings. It can not become much more personal in a song. The string section underscores the emotions flying around. The contrast with the demure way of singing is rather large. The combination is sheer beauty. Clairo really scores with this song.
Lucy
Dacus is one of the female singer-songwriters who have slowly risen to
prominence in the second half of the 10s. Her new record is out, 'Home Video'.
Brando is the single. It is a beautifully crafted song, of the kind that
slowly works towards a modest climax. Lucy Dacus is not afraid to hold
back to be able to release even more. Don't expect a large rock
explosion. It's more like Suzanne Vega changing one of her songs into a hit of Fleetwood Mac. The Lindsey and Stevie version of the 70s, playing a Christine
McVie song. Brando starts with lyrics about watching old black and white
movies in the afternoon for the elderly. I'm back over 40 year ago with
a black and white tv watching old movies on Belgium television on
Saturday afternoons. Movies and TV series that have completely
disappeared it seems. Brando is about a relationship but the memory of
TV afternoons was nice to have. The way the song plays out only
heightens the fun. Brando is well done.
Pip
Blom is working towards the release of its second album. 'Boat' was
received favourably on this blog. The LP found its way into my home and
was played regularly. The first notes of Keep It Together were a little
disappointing, I felt. The feeling did not last long. When that glorious
chorus burst loose, I was lost within seconds. The jubilation in the
chorus is simply huge, catchy and extremely good. Listening to Keep It
Together again my original feeling had disappeared like snow in the sun.
How could I have missed that build up? (Not knowing what to expect, of
course.) In Pip Blom's new single pop and alternative rock blend as if
the two musical streams were meant to be gelled together. The vocal
lines are perfect and managed to soar at the edge of what is seemly. It
creates a kind of pop song that is exciting in a few ways. The most
important perhaps being the enthusiasm with which Pip Blom presents its
new single. Just listen how the chorus explodes and what about the fact
that one vocal melody there wasn't enough? Quite masterly.
The first single of a new band/duo signed by Domino Records.
Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers have a love for music ranging from
Jane Birkin to Ty Segall and The Ronettes to Björk. This became the
basis for them to make their own music. The first song they release
through Domino is a serious up tempo affair, but not of the one
dimensional kind. Whole parts are just singing over either bass and
percussion/drumming or just the latter, before the band breaks out of
its cage. Sometimes pushed back in until there is no stopping it.
Lyrically the song is about being a chaise longue, the English
pronounciation rather comic being used to the French version, all day
long. The guitar melody that bursts out is totally jubilant. There's no
holding back to celebrate being a chaise longue and being horizontal. Is
Chaise Longue good? I don't know yet. Is it fun? Oh yeah.
David
Keenan can be found on this blog early in 2020 with his first album, 'A Beginners Guide To Bravery'. Bark is a single from his upcoming second album. Only two and a
half minutes long, but not less monumental because of that length. Keenan taps into a
kind of music that I'd say died out in the 1970s. Big songs like
'MacArthur's Park' come to mind. Songs in a style Mark Almond tried to
revive on his successful album 'Stars We Are'. Successfully by the way.
Perhaps someone like Rufus Wainwright makes music like this, but I can't
listen to the guy for some reason. David Keenan goes for the true huge
sound. With his big, ringing voice, he surrounds himself with a full
orchestra underpinned by big drums and bass. I am sure that he wrote the
song on his acoustic guitar in a quite corner, undisturbed by the
world. From there is was built up into giant proportions. Bark up a tree
it may be, but in a way that no one can mistake the message, Bark is
small in time, huge in sound. Impressive that's the word I was looking for.
Your Love Is Evol is huge as well, though totally different. The Third Sound is the band of Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist Hákon
Aðalsteinsson and dwells in deep psychedelic states. Do not expect
delicacy or any subtleness. The Third Sound goes full out, straight into
The Black Angels territory and once it arrives there, adds a little more noise from
deeply croaking guitars and an organ that is pushed beyond its outer
limits. The only subtle element of the song is the drum pickup at the
start. This description is not fully truthful, as the solidness of Your Love Is
Evol comes in grades. An extra layer is added by the minute, so in
retrospect the first verse is the epitome of subtlety. When the band
let's it all go, there's no stopping it until the song's end. Yes, it's
loud but also a psychedelic rock of a majestic quality that is hard not
to notice. It's the organ that takes on the lead role, playing the
melodic solo. It all ends with a wall of sound you could crash your car
into, but so good.
Oh
Sinner is a true collaborative record. Portland, Oregon duo The Body
and Montreal trio Big/Brave have recorded an album together, to be
released after the summer. Oh Sinner is the single, a rendition of a
traditional, that could have been written by David Eugene Edwards in his
16 Horsepower period. The song does not get that level of intensity.
What is missing is the devil on the heels of the two acts. The level of
fear of eternal damnation is completely missing here. That said, the two
bands gel well together. There's no telling where one stops or ends,
although that's easy to write for me, not being familiar with either.
The singing is great and the level of darkness injected into the song
works quite well. At the same time it's clear to me that not more is
played than strictly necessary. It gives all prominence to the basic
melody of the traditional and the singing itself. The combination works,
obviously and that goes for the collaboration too.
It's
been a while since I wrote about Torres. With this single it is high I
did so once again. Torres does a successful Weezer, my first thought is.
My second as well. Like the little witch Tiffany in Terry Pratchett's
Disk World novels, it's time I listened to my third thought. That tells
me to start paying attention as Torres is tugging at the world's sleeve,
and not in a modest way. She sings Hug From A Dinosaur with a deep
voice, changing it all the time, at first a bit irritating to me, then
making it stand out more. The little organ sound is 100% Weezer but the
noisy song certainly becomes her own more and more. The whole song uses
deep sounding guitars, a pounding drum, and a piano playing one note
over and over and over. What the solid background does is making the
vocal melody stand out more and more. It's of the kind that is memorable
instantly. The kind of melody that invites singing along to. The more I
listen to Hug From A Dinosaur I realise I'm listening to my favourite
Torres song to date. "No time to spare", she sings and then that sleeve
tugging hits home again. Message: Always listen to your third thought. I knew
that that Tiffany talked sense.
What
a mood change, this first single of Efterklang's fall planned new
album. No more loud rocking guitars, but an electronic (sounding?) disco
drums and synths everywhere. The singing alternates between a man and a
woman (and a vocoder). The result is a track that perhaps more shares
the idea of being danceable than it actually is. Musically there are
elements of triphop from Bristol of twenty and more years ago, I'm
thinking Massive Attack here, but woven into Efterklang's music as if it
is a remix by someone with not enough patience for triphop. The
combination gives Living Other Lives two sides. One aimed at the body
and moving, one aimed at the mind, to seriously undergo the song, follow
its melody, the two-faced vocals. So one urgent and one dreamy. The
Danish band succeeded in bringing both forward in their own way
successfully. A little musical trip Living Other Lives is.
With Bambies a second Montréal band finds it way to this week's singles overview. The song could not be a lot more different from 'Oh Sinner' than Dirty Taint is. This is 100% garage rock and roll that is released by the truckload by Boston label Rum Bar. Not Bambies, it is on Spaghetty Town. Bambies is a trio that has been working on songs written by singer/guitarist Sami since 2015. The hard work obviously paid off. Dirty Taint is so tight a punk(rock) song, The Ramones would not have minded to cover it, I'm sure. It totally shows you in which corner of the musical spectrum Bambies has to be looked up in. Dirty Taint is excitement from the very first until the final note. Rock and roll as it was meant to played and still can be heard today thanks to bands like Bambies.
Wout de Natris
Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:
https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g
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