nicholasalan
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Teitur's new album "The Singer" seems to cause time to stop, like after experiencing something tragic or those rare times when every little detail seems right. At those times you seem to exist outside of time and only in peaceful observation. I feel like this throughout the entire album. Needless to say "The Singer" is beautiful.
When I first heard Teitur I was playing a bar in Columbus, GA called The Loft where Teitur had played the night before. The bartender played me some live cuts of "Amanda's Dream" and "Josephine" and I was hooked. Teitur just had this way of removing any barriers that exist between the artist and the listener, and with "The Singer" Teitur really takes this to a new level.
The production on "The Singer" is like "The Island of Misfit Toys." Its like if you strip the song of everything except the voice, then you let all the production ideas that were overlooked, forgotten, and less favored creep back in, and the effect is this spacious and beautiful setting.
One of the tracks is a letter that Teitur received from a friend, and he sets it to music on the album. It requires a very asymmetric music structure with phrases of various length. This style of writing seems to resurface throughout the album, especially on the title track. The effect for me is that I feel almost as if I'm being talked to, personally as opposed to hearing words and phases that are filtered and reshaped to fit a mass-produced, cookie cut common time song.
I like when an artist progresses to get at an expose their utter self, and that's exactly what Teitur is doing.
Nicholas Alan www.nicholasalan.com
when i hear a song like "oh mandy" i always see myself in the 3rd person, and whatever i'm doing doesn't quite seem good enough. i feel like i should be in foreign lands with some soul mate, and not watching the animate inanimate, the little nagging icons jumping at the bottom of my screen in need of attention. i feel like i should be lying in a field on a summer day, with the sun hot and the smell of grass thick.
listening to "oh mandy" i am subjected to a collage of the most painful & passionate moments in my history, each moment only briefly catching my attention.
listening to "oh mandy" i'm presented with the questions "what do i gain in what i do, and what am i giving up?"
maybe its just me. another song that does this for me is "restaurant" by the thrills. kudos to both bands. i recently heard a friend remark that in general people don't do things with passion anymore. there's too much calculation, too much confusion. you can agree or disagree with this. i do like it though when i can hear a song and feel resuscitated, feel passionate about getting the most out of life before i go to sleep tonight.
nicholas alan www.nicholasalan.com
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ummmmm... will you be mine forever and ever?? in your post you put into words thoughts and feelings i didnt even know i had. but it was like deja vu reading what you said about oh mandy. as i read i felt this strange sense of alignment- of what i dont know, but it was good and it was so cool that someone else out there has thought those same things.
thanks for your post!
For those of you not familiar with my blog series "Shuffle Pick," don't feel bad because this is the 1st one and no one else has heard of it either. The concept is i put my iTunes library on shuffle and write about the 1st artist it lands on. I'm not sold on the name "Shuffle Pick," so I'm open to suggestions.
This week out of my expansive and diverse music library, Harry Connick Jr. emerged with his Star Turtle. To give you some history on this album, I was heavy into it in early high school. I think that was the time. Looking back I think this album was way overlooked.
Star Turtle is without a doubt one of the bravest efforts put forth by an artist in this modern day of music A.F. 90 (reference to "Brave New World" which I'm reading right now. amazing book).
You can hear the style of pop laid down by Harry in his earlier album "She," but wait a minute, hold on, there's a....Turtle from space. A large one at that, like 7' who speaks in a deep voice. The first lyrics of this album are "my hands are red." then the turtle makes its entrance, the 1st of the reptilian rocketeers. Harry proceeds to educate the turtle on New Orleans jazz in an almost telepathic dialog, by hopping from club to club. The turtle is "collecting" in a way the music so that he can save his home planet from the stench and despair that the music will overpower. Brilliant!! These diversions break the album down into a 3 sections.
In regards to this album being a brave effort, it's easy and almost expected for certain people to do experimental albums, like Zappa or newer progressive rock bands & such. But Harry Connick Jr.!!? 90% of Harry's listeners listen to him because of his Jazz & standards albums. This album is way experimental, and I'm not saying that there aren't way more experimental albums, but I don't know of many artists so standard and established as Harry suddenly putting everything else aside and doing an album about a space turtle. its like diana krall suddenly doing a blues album where she leads the listener through an existence of underground cave dwellers (my idea and i want credit for it) or Scarlett Johansson doing an album of Tom Waits covers (not a slash - i love both of them and can't wait to hear it).
A brilliant idea of an album and coupled with some very timeless songs. aaaaannd.....done.
-nicholas alan www.nicholasalan.com
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How about calling your series, The ipod's wild illustration of a seriously eclectic music collection? Sorta wordy, huh? How 'bout...Random Song Review? Too obvious? Hey, just call it Fred. Everyone will wonder what the f&^k you'r up to.
I kinda like "Shuffle Pick." Enjoyed the music and the post, though I can hardly fathom that poeple actually listen to their music libraries in this way. I'm still very much an artist/album listener.
MOG Meter
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A very minimalist song!
Dig It ! Thanks 4 sharing !
Jury's still out on how I feel about this, but the sound is definitely interesting and engaging. "Spacious" is dead on. Fine post.