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| Track list: 1. Last Leaf 2. Vapour Trail 3. Black Winged Bird 4. Some Surprise 5. All the Way Down 6. Too Many People 7. Good Intentions Rust 8. Needles 9. Aliens Running time: 34 minutes Released: 2006 |
I am pretty sure that the main reason I picked this up was because I really loved Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew. The Cake Sale is a charity album by a mostly Irish congregation of other musicians. Hannigan is joined by Gemma Hayes (whose debut Night on My Side was a staple of my university years) and Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy) in terms of other artists from my library, and many other who I don't have work by. Damien Rice wrote one of the tunes. However I am sure those were happy coincidences, and it was Hannigan whose work convinced me to pick this up. The songs appear now and again on a shuffle and I never recognise them when they do. The 2006 date apparently was Ireland only, it being released almost a year later in the UK. Huh.
Enough irrelevances, on to the tunes.
We start with Lisa, a husky vocal intro. There is a soul to the singing that I rather like, but the minimalist arrangement in the first minute or so leaves something to be desired. It becomes a more enjoyable piece of music once we get a little more instrumentation. It's still fairly light, giving her hushed voice a lot of space in the verse, then building the support through the chorus, led by a piano melody in one instance, strings in another. Simple little tunes, but very welcome. Then the piece is done and we're on to the next. Vapour Trail is bland to begin with, both in the tune and in song. It sounds like an understated TV theme tune for some dull suburban show, and fails to grow on me as it goes. The arrangement is flat and the singer just does nothing for me. It is not actively unpleasant but it offers me no hook, nothing to get into. Its wallpaper music, lift music, fill silence with something everyone can tune out music. Characterless.
The tempo and tone to Black Winged Bird is similarly dull, but the clear chime of the piano keys offers a small amount of depth to it which has the effect of making it feel so much better than what came before. The vocal is also more appealing - apparently the lead singer of Swedish popsters The Cardigans, though I would never know from the sound. The voice soars over the melody in a nice clear duality, a contrast that helps lift the piece. Here the backing grows through the song, too, becoming richer and, whilst it never rids itself of the whiff of the generic, it at least grows to an enjoyable climax. When it finishes we are served up a stripped back number, with a voice that sounds really familiar. Snow Patrol's lead, apparently, duetting with Hannigan again. Funny though - I never got into Snow Patrol, but I did to their other big collective effort (this time mostly Scottish) The Reindeer Section. However that isn't really where it sounds familiar from. Funny how the human brain can mix up so many different things. For all that waffle (the song has gone), its a dull track.
Oh how navel-gazingly trite. Gemma Hayes' effort here is so waifish and fragile that it evokes the same kind of reaction I had to her third album - ennui. As mentioned above, her debut was a real favourite for a while - it had personality, emotion - including this fragility, but going beyond it. The follow-up had its moments too, but by the time the third came out it felt like an almost broken shell was all that was left. This tune grows in the arrangement before it ends, but it never gets beyond disappointing.
Disappointing seems to sum up this collection thus far as the next tune falls into the trap of featurelessness and a sense that you couldn't pick this out from a line up of acoustic indie tunes. The vocal is alright, I guess - which is about the most positive thing I have ever had to say about Glen Hansard, who at one point seemed to be about the most overrated thing on the singer/songwriter scene. At this point I am hoping that Hannigan's Rice-penned tune and Hannon's offering redeem the purchase, though it hasn't been a complete washout, because Lisa Hannigan; her voice is one of those I hear and just enjoy.
Needles has a slow tempo, a sombreness that is very Rice. I think the application of backing "oohs" threatens to overwhelm and ruin the understated vocal, Hannigan singing at barely above a whisper, a sense of gravity that matches the stately pace. Those chorus oohs though, they are awful. Completely destroying the pleasant ambience of the verse. There isn't anything particularly special about the track, but it is solid in a way that earlier offerings on the disc have not been. You couldn't say this was any less generic than some of the other tunes preceding it, but it is more solidly built around its theme. That bloody backing track aside it was a nice tune.
We end with Hannon singing about Aliens for 6 and a half minutes. He sounds almost stereotypically Bowie-like in places here, a weird fragility and affected delivery. I was never a Bowie fan and I am sure they would all be appalled with the comparison. The song is... well lets just say it isn't in danger of rescuing the album for me. I rather like Hannon's voice, I rather like his willingness to fit into different roles, genres, styles for his work. I don't even mind his Bowie impression, but frankly songs about Aliens need something compelling to sell them and that is really lacking here. Likewise songs that push 6 minutes need something to maintain engagement for that long. Lacking here. It does offer me the sop of long lonely notes - almost like a certain Icelandic post-rock group who I won't name for fear of running the tags too long - but even that is not enough to save it. The denouement starts some 40 seconds before the end and all it does is draw out the same dull loop a little longer, slower and more dull.
Overall then? Not at all what I was hoping. I genuinely like the first track, and a couple of others had their moments but... weak. Really weak. There is a sense of self pity, a downbeat nature to the disc which - given the title and the fact it was a charity record - is pretty much the opposite of what I would have expected. An utter disappointment.
We start with Lisa, a husky vocal intro. There is a soul to the singing that I rather like, but the minimalist arrangement in the first minute or so leaves something to be desired. It becomes a more enjoyable piece of music once we get a little more instrumentation. It's still fairly light, giving her hushed voice a lot of space in the verse, then building the support through the chorus, led by a piano melody in one instance, strings in another. Simple little tunes, but very welcome. Then the piece is done and we're on to the next. Vapour Trail is bland to begin with, both in the tune and in song. It sounds like an understated TV theme tune for some dull suburban show, and fails to grow on me as it goes. The arrangement is flat and the singer just does nothing for me. It is not actively unpleasant but it offers me no hook, nothing to get into. Its wallpaper music, lift music, fill silence with something everyone can tune out music. Characterless.
The tempo and tone to Black Winged Bird is similarly dull, but the clear chime of the piano keys offers a small amount of depth to it which has the effect of making it feel so much better than what came before. The vocal is also more appealing - apparently the lead singer of Swedish popsters The Cardigans, though I would never know from the sound. The voice soars over the melody in a nice clear duality, a contrast that helps lift the piece. Here the backing grows through the song, too, becoming richer and, whilst it never rids itself of the whiff of the generic, it at least grows to an enjoyable climax. When it finishes we are served up a stripped back number, with a voice that sounds really familiar. Snow Patrol's lead, apparently, duetting with Hannigan again. Funny though - I never got into Snow Patrol, but I did to their other big collective effort (this time mostly Scottish) The Reindeer Section. However that isn't really where it sounds familiar from. Funny how the human brain can mix up so many different things. For all that waffle (the song has gone), its a dull track.
Oh how navel-gazingly trite. Gemma Hayes' effort here is so waifish and fragile that it evokes the same kind of reaction I had to her third album - ennui. As mentioned above, her debut was a real favourite for a while - it had personality, emotion - including this fragility, but going beyond it. The follow-up had its moments too, but by the time the third came out it felt like an almost broken shell was all that was left. This tune grows in the arrangement before it ends, but it never gets beyond disappointing.
Disappointing seems to sum up this collection thus far as the next tune falls into the trap of featurelessness and a sense that you couldn't pick this out from a line up of acoustic indie tunes. The vocal is alright, I guess - which is about the most positive thing I have ever had to say about Glen Hansard, who at one point seemed to be about the most overrated thing on the singer/songwriter scene. At this point I am hoping that Hannigan's Rice-penned tune and Hannon's offering redeem the purchase, though it hasn't been a complete washout, because Lisa Hannigan; her voice is one of those I hear and just enjoy.
Needles has a slow tempo, a sombreness that is very Rice. I think the application of backing "oohs" threatens to overwhelm and ruin the understated vocal, Hannigan singing at barely above a whisper, a sense of gravity that matches the stately pace. Those chorus oohs though, they are awful. Completely destroying the pleasant ambience of the verse. There isn't anything particularly special about the track, but it is solid in a way that earlier offerings on the disc have not been. You couldn't say this was any less generic than some of the other tunes preceding it, but it is more solidly built around its theme. That bloody backing track aside it was a nice tune.
We end with Hannon singing about Aliens for 6 and a half minutes. He sounds almost stereotypically Bowie-like in places here, a weird fragility and affected delivery. I was never a Bowie fan and I am sure they would all be appalled with the comparison. The song is... well lets just say it isn't in danger of rescuing the album for me. I rather like Hannon's voice, I rather like his willingness to fit into different roles, genres, styles for his work. I don't even mind his Bowie impression, but frankly songs about Aliens need something compelling to sell them and that is really lacking here. Likewise songs that push 6 minutes need something to maintain engagement for that long. Lacking here. It does offer me the sop of long lonely notes - almost like a certain Icelandic post-rock group who I won't name for fear of running the tags too long - but even that is not enough to save it. The denouement starts some 40 seconds before the end and all it does is draw out the same dull loop a little longer, slower and more dull.
Overall then? Not at all what I was hoping. I genuinely like the first track, and a couple of others had their moments but... weak. Really weak. There is a sense of self pity, a downbeat nature to the disc which - given the title and the fact it was a charity record - is pretty much the opposite of what I would have expected. An utter disappointment.
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