So I am very infrequently ahead of the curve so sorry if this young lady has been all over the place and I am late to the party … but I love what this young lady does. She’s 18, from Southport and sounds very beautiful.
This one is very ‘Lordes’ in her vocal delivery, it perhaps has what you were missing from the Lordes album Brother David?
By now you should all have your copy of this album. Apologies for the delay in getting this post up on the site.
I’ve owned this album for about a week now and while I have spent some time with it, I’ve not been able to focus on it as much as I would like to. Therefore, this won’t be the usual heartfelt, personal introduction that so often Album Of The Month posts are. What I will do is share my path to this album and my initial thoughts.
My introduction to Sufjan Stevens, like so many others was through ‘Illinois’ a concept album of tracks inspired by the state, perhaps the worst idea for a concept album ever … but one of the finest albums of its decade (in my humble opinion). The critics agreed and Sufjan became a relatively well-known name in the 20-40 something, music loving, gig-going crowd. From there I went backwards to ‘Seven Swans’ which is a far simpler affair more about song writing than the complex musical adornment seen on Illinois. I missed a lot of what came after Illinois (4 albums including an Xmas album that really is worth a listen when it comes to that time of year again!) and picked up again with Age of Adz. This was released around the time that Silvia was born and very much reminds me of the time and feelings involved. For this reason it has a very special place in my heart. However well received by critics I think a lot of people found that a step too far in terms of musical trickery (wankery) and needless complexity. An album and an EP later and Sufjan releases Carrie & Lowell.
The album is inspired by the death of his troubled Mother, Carrie and her life including her relatively short relationship with his Father (or Carrie’s partner? I cant recall and am not too concerned about these details) Lowell. That doesn’t sound like a particularly good start for many … expect for me. As has become obvious through the course of our ramblings, I love a musical tear-jerker. I have a very high threshold for heart breaking personal lyrics and always have. I have no problem that the hook on ‘Fourth of July’ is ‘We’re all gonna die’ a sentiment that Sufjan has visited on numerous previous tracks in less detail and with more poetic disguise. This album is full of emotional detail and no attempt at disguise … unless you compare it to something like ‘Benji’ by Sun Kill Moon (a favourite of mine from last year). ‘Benji’ was heartbreakingly sad and even I find it a tough listen unless I am in precisely the right place.
The difference for me is that ‘Carrie & Lowell’ is hypnotic in its presentation, its beautiful in its simplicity. Mr. Steven’s has removed many of the musical obstacles that he created in earlier works to reveal the beauty of his melodies. His voice is a fragile and at points a brittle instrument but it is perfectly suited to the lyrical content. At points he sounds like Elliot Smith which for me is no problem as he is another artist that I have held close to my heart (I am an ageing, depressed and confused teenager after all).
The big question I think others will need to answer is ‘do I find this depressing or do I find it beautiful?’.
Enjoy (if you think that is the right word).
Banger after banger after banger …
Lovely new track from Sufjan Stevens upcoming album. Back to basics and simple production / instrumentation. This is one I’ve been looking forward to this year. Sounds right up my street, an album full of heartbreaking songs about his recently lost Mum. Grab the tissues.
I’m not claiming to be up on anything new here but I am really enjoying this, more so than anything like this that I’ve heard for some time.
The three tracks below are from a self titled 7 track EP.
Is the EP having a re-surgence in the digital world? I always though downloading would destroy the LP as an art-form but it seems to have increased the release of EPs? Not sure if this is correct or not but it feels that way?
Follow up to ‘Kill for Love’ nearly here. A taster / teaser. Not much of a departure … but why would you?
I like ‘best’ debates, ‘top 10 this’, ‘best 5 that’ etc.
The reason I ask the question ‘best LCD album?’ is I am sat in a hotel room with a bottle of wine reading a trashy novel. I am listening to 45:33 and I am finding it very hard to come up with an argument against it being the best LCD album. It’s perfect. I hope it goes without saying I am referring only to tracks i – vi and not the extras. I read quite a lot and mostly listen to non-vocal music when reading as I find lyrics distracting. I find 45:33 massively disturbing to my consumption of trashy novels even though it has little lyrical content. It sounds so amazing, so much so I stop reading altogether!
Your thoughts?
Some time ago … 3 years?!? (have we been doing this for 3 years?) I emailed (don’t think we’d made it blogs yet) a track called ‘Brains’ by Lower Dens. I loved it, I loved the understated album. They’re back and I am quite happy to announce not much has changed … in a good way? I think so.
Here is ‘Brains’ from 2012
Singer Song Writers Ahoy
Natalie Prass – Nashville lady writes beautiful songs and sounds like Dolly / Dusty. Very clean and polished for me but I can’t resist the voice. Too much Grammy-bait or is it hitting the mark?
Tobias Jesso Jr. – lots of songs about the twin faces of Hollywood.
New Frank Ocean
Its hard not to like this … its easy to pretend that you don’t (sexually aggressive art work, explicit lyrics, West Coast cliches) … but I think you might just be pretending that you don’t.
thisisnothappening.net 