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Contagious Smile. Elenne May
With a pause in the original release schedule, Elenne May returns to the blog with its fourth consecutive single of the 'Velvet Beings' theater show. If anything Contagious Smile shows how this song blossoms from spoken word into an intricate song showing ever more depth and beauty. The journey through the desert, including the veggie patch, has been made, every last grain of sand inspected and travailed and contact with the world of the living is, once more, made: "Come now, make your smile show". The inner sees the new situation and seems to approve. The ever wider singing choir symbolises the opening of the flower. By that time Contagious Smile shows an overwhelming unconquerableness. But is all alright? At the same time the choir seems to hold no love nor laugh. It sounds like submission to my ears. Go and see the show to learn more.
Australian band The Teskey Brothers is on Dutch radio for some weeks already with its cover of The Zombies song This Will Be Our Year. I could have been easily fooled had someone said this was an Otis Redding cover. There's so much soul in this under three minutes single. A Steve Cropper like guitar and a Booker T. Jones Hammond show the way. The Teskey having vocal duties has that rough edge to his voice Otis had too. It makes This Will Be Our Year a strange hybrid of a song. It sounds immediately familiar and gratifying. But how does it compare to the original?
Totally different, except for the melody of course and even half a minute shorter. The song is from The Zombies' swan song in the 1960s, 'Odessey And Oracle'. Long since recognised as a masterpiece, containing the band's second most popular song, 'Time Of The Season' (if not first). This version is driven by the piano of Rod Argent, with of course Colin Blunstone's rather high voice. It is total pop in the way The Beatles were totally leading at the time. For a pop song it is richly orchestrated with some horns playing counter melodies with a trumpet in a 'Penny Lane' role.
Is there a winner in music? Hardly, as it is all down to taste. I like The Zombies best though.
Another song that could have been made decades ago. Blackbird's new single holds a sixties pop vibe of long held notes giving Build And Broken the feel of a ballad, despite being far too fast for a ballad. (Not to speak of guitar eruptions here and there, mixed into the semi background.) The result is a mysterious song that appears to me as a shade shrouded in fog. Nothing is fully clear, except that it contains beauty within it. Beauty to explore and nurture. The richness of the arrangement is something to cherish. Zangeres Merel (Blackbird) Koman is the centre of this song. There's no doubt about that, except that there's so much happening around her, creating that shroud of mystery. "I'm making sixties records ... made of a million memories", Koman sings at the beginning of Build And Broken. A sixties record for 2022 as indeed this single holds those million musical memories. What a richness in music is shared here.
With her eponymous album Jen Cloher made one of my favourite albums of 2017. On tour with now ex-partner Courtney Barnett she showed that that the album was no coincidence and then things went quiet, at least as far as I'm aware. Cloher returns with what I can only call a Jack Johnson kind of song. The kind with a soft, percussive acoustic guitar driving it forward. Singing with a soft voice she keeps up that laidback mood. In the background slowly but surely the song is sprucing out with more and more sounds and melodies joining. It all results in a warm song, totally detonating with alternative rock songs on 'Jen Cloher'. Mana Takatãpui is impossible not to like.
Amber Arcades releases its second single coming off the upcoming album 'Barefoot On Diamond Road'. If anything Odd To Even can be called a change of tack alright. The song is build up from the rhythm and a string section playing in a rhythmic, almost pulsating way. The song brings 'Eleanor Rigby' to mind, without having anything to do with that song's melody, but all with its atmosphere. The song is so far removed from 'Fading Lines' and 'It Changes', my two personal Amber Arcades favourites, that only because I instantly recognise Annelotte de Graaf's voice, I believe to be listening to Amber Arcades. Yes, I'll admit that Odd To Even does not immediately resonate in me but after several listening sessions, the song slowly gets under my skin. The song opens itself and all the small details put into it reveal themselves. And then that short change comes in and I'm sold anyway.
En alweer een single van De Toegift, de Zeeuwse band die wel zeer regelmatig te vinden is op dit blog. Ieder nummer anders, van aanpak, atmosfeer en uitvoering. Licht Van Stof is een enorm dromerige song die qua zang 'Gute Nacht Freunden' uitstraalt, maar qua muziek een mix van de nog later op de avond spelende band in een jazzclub met in de remix allerlei elektronische foefjes die over het nummer en de zang zijn uitgesprinkeld. De akoestische gitaar en de prachtig spelende piano ondersteunen de zang van Maxim Ventulé. Je ziet de rook kringelen in de spotlight die op hem gericht is. (Nee, dat mag niet meer, maar dat is wel wat hier gaande is.) Opnieuw scoort De Toegift een prachtige goal. Messi is er niets bij. Begin volgend jaar komt de cd er aan. Als alles bij elkaar gevoegd net zo overtuigend klinkt als de individuele songs, dan gaat de som der delen gigantisch zijn. Nog zes weken. Jee, wat kan dat nog lang duren.
After its string of singles in the first Covid year things went quiet around Garlands. With the announcement of 'Imagine If I Was This Tall' to be released on 16 December, that period of silence is over. The Scottish trio plays its upbeat alternative pop rock with the enthusiasm I have come to expect. Having listened several times to the first song released by the band, I notice that Garlands has combined its previous work with a light sheen of 60s psychedelia, Beatlesque harmonies and Britpop a la Supergrass. A combination that actually works quite well. The energy jumps from the bites on Bandcamp. Not long before we can finally learn more on what's to come.
Junodef is a new name to me. It is a Swedish combo formed in 2015. With Diane's Robot the band starts a new chapter in its career. The song is almost more mystery than song. Of course, it has all the elements of what it means to play a song. It is the atmosphere that makes it different. Think Radiohead or its latest incarnation The Smile. The structures within Diane's Robot may, when peeled apart, all sound straight forward, mixed together it becomes a complex and multi-layered song. Junodef certainly did not opt for the easy road. This makes Diane's Robot an adventure, to listen to and enjoy. Yes, this single tends to find itself at the dark side of pop but it is fully worthwhile the journey into the deep, dark forest and back. Fascinating song.
A step back in time Nature Of Artifice is. As if the 1980s never went away and the dark days of atomic gloom are still upon us. Oh, wait, they are once again. I may be naive but just like then I'm not buying it. That aside Cloud of Ravens presents a song that is dark, tight and playful. It is there that the difference with the 1980s lies and why I like Nature Of Artifice. You can hear the influence of alternative pop and rock music from the past 40 years as well. Some Editors, White Lies, all these U.K. bands that broke big(gish) over the past decades. The long held synth chords determine a large part of the songs outcome. The duo, Beth Narducci, bass and vocals and Matthew McIntosh, all else plus vocals, sing together with Narducci being more prominent here, shedding loads of darkness over the song. Without forgetting the vocals need a strong melody to convince and it has. The result is song that combines the past with today and everything in between. The album, 'Lost Hymns' is slated for early 2023.
Wout de Natris
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