who knows what we'll find?
Mar. 30th, 2007 07:22 pmEventually I am going to write witty, comical bits about life, fangirlism, and Nine's accent. But first, bit reviews of the two albums I got in the post!
i. Day One - Sarah Slean. This is a lovely album, and I am all wibbley over the liner art. I love liner art. I love, even better, when great care is given to the liner art, and even more when the lyrics are actually present. Especially if they're legible. (Switchfoot, I'm sorry--the Oh! Gravity cover was fantastic, but why does it unfold like a newspaper? And I can't read lyrics / seperated like this.) My major quibble with Day One is that it's somewhat overproduced and Sarah's piano is not as present as it ought to be. Songs like 'Mary' and 'California' would be miles better without the electronic drums cluttering them up. The second half of the album, starting with 'Vertigo', is brilliant, though.
ii. Drunkard's Prayer - Over the Rhine. Which is my new favourite album ever. Absolutely lovely and enchanting and beautiful and lots of other redundant adjectives (I like adjectives; can you tell?). I've been investigating Over the Rhine for a while, actually--really, two years, except that I sort of forgot about them for a while and then rediscovered them some months ago and fell overwhelmingly in love. I mean, for one thing, I really like Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, from their letters and songwriting and the bits and pieces of their words on the website. I don't usually feel especially connected to artists outside of their art (though I rarely dislike someone whose music or writing I like a lot), but I like Linford and Karin and would love to talk to them sometime. Anyway, the album--there's a bit about its purpose and creation here, and you can see a bit about how the album feels--it was recorded in their living room, and they live in a beautiful old farmhouse--there are photographs of it in the liner notes, all glossy aged wood and wide bright windows and odd little artifacts and sleeping dogs and a lovely grand piano in the other room. It's exactly where I'd want to record an album, anyway, and Drunkard's Prayer has got the kind of intimacy and rustic elegance and old-fashioned timelessness that such a house suggests. It's quiet and spare and evocative and I love it and love it and love it; it's already climbed up to that list of Nearly Perfect Albums amongst the likes of Vienna Teng's Dreaming Through the Noise, Deb Talan's A Bird Flies Out, Richard Shindell's and Solas' live albums, and...er, whichever Sixpence None the Richer album I am mad over at the moment; it keeps changing.
(They've got rather a lot of free mp3s on their website, by the by, if you're interested, in the mp3 attic, and also sample tracks in some of the album descriptions.)
Oh, and my even knowing about Over the Rhine is attributed solely to![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aohdwyn, with charismitaine coming in to remind me after a while. Thankee, lovelies! (And technically I ought to attribute my knowledge of Miss Slean to the f-list as well--I discovered her through last.fm radio.)
i. Day One - Sarah Slean. This is a lovely album, and I am all wibbley over the liner art. I love liner art. I love, even better, when great care is given to the liner art, and even more when the lyrics are actually present. Especially if they're legible. (Switchfoot, I'm sorry--the Oh! Gravity cover was fantastic, but why does it unfold like a newspaper? And I can't read lyrics / seperated like this.) My major quibble with Day One is that it's somewhat overproduced and Sarah's piano is not as present as it ought to be. Songs like 'Mary' and 'California' would be miles better without the electronic drums cluttering them up. The second half of the album, starting with 'Vertigo', is brilliant, though.
ii. Drunkard's Prayer - Over the Rhine. Which is my new favourite album ever. Absolutely lovely and enchanting and beautiful and lots of other redundant adjectives (I like adjectives; can you tell?). I've been investigating Over the Rhine for a while, actually--really, two years, except that I sort of forgot about them for a while and then rediscovered them some months ago and fell overwhelmingly in love. I mean, for one thing, I really like Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, from their letters and songwriting and the bits and pieces of their words on the website. I don't usually feel especially connected to artists outside of their art (though I rarely dislike someone whose music or writing I like a lot), but I like Linford and Karin and would love to talk to them sometime. Anyway, the album--there's a bit about its purpose and creation here, and you can see a bit about how the album feels--it was recorded in their living room, and they live in a beautiful old farmhouse--there are photographs of it in the liner notes, all glossy aged wood and wide bright windows and odd little artifacts and sleeping dogs and a lovely grand piano in the other room. It's exactly where I'd want to record an album, anyway, and Drunkard's Prayer has got the kind of intimacy and rustic elegance and old-fashioned timelessness that such a house suggests. It's quiet and spare and evocative and I love it and love it and love it; it's already climbed up to that list of Nearly Perfect Albums amongst the likes of Vienna Teng's Dreaming Through the Noise, Deb Talan's A Bird Flies Out, Richard Shindell's and Solas' live albums, and...er, whichever Sixpence None the Richer album I am mad over at the moment; it keeps changing.
(They've got rather a lot of free mp3s on their website, by the by, if you're interested, in the mp3 attic, and also sample tracks in some of the album descriptions.)
Oh, and my even knowing about Over the Rhine is attributed solely to
aohdwyn, with charismitaine coming in to remind me after a while. Thankee, lovelies! (And technically I ought to attribute my knowledge of Miss Slean to the f-list as well--I discovered her through last.fm radio.)
