Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

Denison Witmer’s latest elixir for an ever-growing audience is his new long player Carry The Weight.  Suggesting a heavier, more somber tone to the album, the album title is only somewhat applicable.  On the opening “Beautiful Boys and Girls”, Witmer’s voice conjures up a certain ‘catchy’, almost infectious darkness that serves to adorn the song rather than detract from it.  The disciplined piano keys of “Carry The Weight” is an achingly sweet statement of (perhaps) the burdens that Witmer must take on.  But he proves fearless in this endeavor, as the song crescendoes into a wonderfully melodious concoction of pianos and harmonious voices.

The seemingly lighter but slightly repetitive “Catholic Girl” shows Witmer’s penchant for writing more sanguine folk songs.  Witmer continues to dispel the ‘carry the weight’ notion with “Life Before Aesthetics”, which showcases Witmer’s vocal range and a damn near perfect chorus. Witmer begins to slow things down, literally, with the latter half of the album–and it appears to be the weaker part of the album. “If You are the Writer” and “One More Day” are mediocre at best, only to be saved by the Are You a Dreamer-esque sound of “Chesapeake Watershed”.  The “Carry The Weight” acoustic version at the end of the album might actually be better than the ‘original’ version.  So go ahead and tell me what you think. Buy a copy of Carry The Weight.

Listen to “Carry The Weight (Acoustic)”

Listen to “Life Before Aesthetics“

I’m sure that you’ve already had a chance to listen in full to Cat Power’s Jukebox, ripe full of lovingly done covers of songs that are now approaching 4 decades old.  But Chan Marshall will be releasing an EP (B-sides of Jukebox?) entitled Dark End of the Street on December 9th.  Check it out here.  The six song EP is not a terrible amount to chew on, but nonetheless, it’s still definitely worth your time.  Cat Power’s cover of “Fortunate Son” by CCR is…..amazingly different and serves a testament of what ‘The Power’ is capable of doing.  It’s as seething and sardonic as the original, but even more haunting and beautiful with its gentle strings and Marshall’s outspoken rasp.  She’s the ultimate manipulator of sound, I say.

Listen to “Fortunate Son (Creedance Clearwater Revival)“

As I am sure many of you may be aware, Coldplay has released an accompanying EP Prospekt’s March to their now 5 month old record.  I was duly impressed with Viva La Vida, and you can read my review on this album here.  Coldplay has always released several ‘B-sides’ along with their records–it seems as though this is done more as an artistic decision as opposed to a marketing one.  The truth is that these B-sides could easily be A’s, but I think Chris Martin and the gang are very particular about what they want on each record.

And so that leaves us with Prospekt’s March.  I thought I’d do a little rundown of the tracklisting…

Life in Technicolor ii - The instrumental album version gets some vocal treatment, and I have to say that this song becomes infintely better for it.

Postcards from Far Away – Clocking in at only 48 seconds, there’s not much here.  And frankly, it’s a little bit of a waste of time.

Glass of Water – A pounding, high-charged rock song that is unmistakably Coldplay.  The chorus seems a little disjointed from the verses, but the dreamy bridge reels you back in.

Rainy Day – An uncharacteristic track here, that sounds more like a song from a sun-drenched Orange County outfit rather than…Coldplay.  It’s perhaps Coldplay’s most playful song they’ve ever written, and it seems as though the band does a good amount of experimentation.  I like it, but I don’t think this is where Coldplay is going to go with their sound.

Prospekt’s March – A dreampop Coldplay song, as it could be done other way.

Lost+ – Coldplay and Jay-Z. Ambitious, delicious, not time to get vicious. So I won’t. Wonderfully done.

Lovers in Japan (Osaka Sun Mix) – Exactly that. A remix of Lovers in Japan.  Just a little more backbeat and some cool instrumental harmonies but nothing much more than that.  Will this be turned into a club mix? Boy, I hope not.

Now My Feet Won’t Touch the Ground – Begins as an acoustic, folk ditty and slowly unfolds into a gentle horned delight.

Buy a copy or download of Prospekt’s March.

It’s always incredible to me when you look back at the work of Michael Jackson, and you realize how amazing his total body of work has been.  He may be the king of pop, but the bottom line is that the songs he crafted appealed to a much wider range than any standard pop song would today. I don’t have the same stigma as most people do with Michael Jackson, but every time I hear his name, it just saddens me.  Surely, nobody wants to be that crazy and get that much attention for it.

Check out his (musical) body of work.

Listen to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”

Listen to “Wanna Be Startin’ Something“

I just wanted to take this chance to say thank you to all my readers.  I know I’ve been a little negligent as of late.  Things have been busy, to say the least. But I’m making an earnest attempt to keep it up.

So Thank you!

Listen to The Redwalls – “Thank You”

Listen to Gotye – “Thanks for Your Time” (a satirical thank you on behalf of Australia’s Wally DeBacker)

We last heard of Sonya Kitchell way back in ’06 when she was just a 16-year-old crafting a hell of a debut Words Come Back to Me.  Fast forward two and a half years and Kitchell is out with an even more impressive followup The Storm.  Indeed, the album is aptly titled, with Kitchell channeling more charged, jazz-folk-pop melodies that showcase her incredible vocal talents.  In listening to Kitchell, I’m still amazed by the candor, the sincerity, and the wisdom in her lyrics–it juse baffles me how someone so young can put together something so coherent and beautiful.

In her own soft rasp, Kitchell exudes confidence on The Storm.  Whereas she seemed more hesitant to pull out the stops on her debut, Kitchell seems less restrained and bridled.  Perhaps the greatest difference here is the amount of instrumentation on The Storm–most notably, there is more of it.  Like the sun’s parabolic path through the sky, the songs on The Storm have more of an arcing beauty to them than the linear dimension on Words Come Back to Me.  The opening track “For Every Drop” starts out like Sea and Cake sound with its brushy rhythms and breezy tones, but then opens up into a grand piano, guitar and bass-driven ditty.  There’s plenty of crescendo here, something that gets delightfully relayed to the listener. The bells and slow-rolling bass of the folkier “Here to There” is balanced excellently by the comical tenor sax and distorted harmonica.  “Fire” is a fast-burning bluesy track that smolders red hot from the intensity of Kitchell’s penetrating vocals, and will have you seeing “Fire / Fire” along with her.  But Kitchell also showcases her penchant for slow ballads as well, with the debut-like delicacy of “Robin in the Snow” and the Emiliana Torrini-esque “Soldier’s Lament”.  The Storm, in essence, is Kitchell’s bridge from one stage to the next–or to reinvoke the sun metaphor, it’s her transition from one day to the next.  The Storm‘s sun has set. Now Kitchell faces the challenge that every sun has to face: what do you do when you dip below the horizon?  It’ll be great to see what she does next….

Get a copy of The Storm.

Listen to “For Every Drop”

Listen to “Here to There“

One of CSV‘s all-time favorite innovators and ammalgamators of sound goes by the moniker J Ralph.  Quirky and eccentric, Ralph has always delivered tracks with a keen sense for rhythm and rhyme.  He is famous for having no formal music training (can’t read or write music), but I find it hard to believe when he was able to compose a masterpiece for a 99-piece orchestra and conduct.  Let’s just appreciate the talent that is J Ralph.

Hear a piece by NPR on his Ralphness.

From Lucky Number Slevin soundtrack “Kansas City Shuffle”

From Music to Mauzner By (under the name Spy) “One Million Miles Away“

The critical acclaim around the Annuals has always sparked my interest, but never really satiated my appetite for good tunes.

I thought I would share a couple of tracks, though, and let you decide for yourself.  Happy Friday!!

Get a copy of Such Fun.

Listen to “Hot Night Hounds”

Listen to “Down the Mountain“

It’s one thing when all your myspace friends are cats/kittens. It’s another thing when all the kitsch actually amounts to something. Fortunately, both apply for the UK duo of Carim Clasmann and Galia Durant that make up Psapp.  The savory tones of Durant’s vocals melded with the ecletic instruments of Clasmann’s invention have given rise to the term ‘toytronica’ to describe their style.  But to pin Psapp into this proverbial corner only emphasizes the superficial kitsch and novelty to Psapp’s work.  While certainly this remains a significant part of their appeal, this ignores the complexity and sophistication that lie at the heart of what Psapp does.

And their fourth proper LP The Camel’s Back couldn’t be more indicative of such.  The album title seems to allude to the straw that breaks the camel’s back–could this be a statement by the band about their own style? Is it losing its uniqueness? Perhaps this album is to be the one that ‘breaks the camel’s back’, the one that is just too much to handle. To me, rather, it seems that this album is ever more so an affirmation (a culmination, if you will) of what Psapp has done thus far.  It is a defiant statement, a declaration, a strengthening (?) of the camel’s back.

To use words like eclectic and quirky are not helpful in defining the songs on The Camel’s Back, and would ultimately overlook the amazing breadth within those classifications that Psapp fills.  “I Want That” is a conglomeration of non-sequitur sounds, an unbridled explosion varying noises–and yet this entropy is harnessed in by Durant’s sweet, sultry voice to a delightful effect.  More discipline is shown on the stringed “Part Like Waves”, a delicate epic of a track that somehow tiptoes silently into your ear and runs out the other. The lowdown swing of “Fickle Ghost” carries a dissonant air, contrasted with the playful, less emotive “The Monster Song”.  The pulsing hypnotism of “Fix It” is as infectious a song as you’re going to hear, followed by the boisterous “Mister Ant”, only to conclude with the French ragtime of “Parker”.

So stop reading.  Get the album!

You can get a free track if you sign up for their mailing list.

Listen to “Fix It”

Listen to “Part Like Waves“

I thought this was way too awesome not to share.  Google is now hosting TIME-LIFE photos since 1880.  Pretty amazing what Google has done, I have to say. Way to go world!

Check it out here.

Coldplay – The World Turned Upside Down