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| Track list: 1. Atomic Number 2. Honey and Smoke 3. Song for Judee 4. Blue Fires 5. Delirium 6. Greens of June 7. Behind the Armory 8. Best Kept Secret 9. 1,000 Miles Away 10. Supermoon 11. I Want To Be Here 12. Down I-5 13. Why Do We Fight 14. Georgia Stars Running time: 43 minutes Released: 2016 |
This one almost passed me by earlier in the year, but once I caught wind I had to grab it. I was never a fan of k.d. lang, but Neko Case and Laura Veirs on the other hand both had multiple albums in my collection, even before I went out and bought up what I didn't have of Veirs' work after loving Carbon Glacier. My initial impressions weren't amazing, but simply pretty solid. Moments of wonder - particularly from Case's depth of vocal expression - but not a stunning album taken as a whole. I think I listened through it three or 4 times on the commute but always then my attention was elsewhere. There are a lot of tracks in not much time, so lets get to it.
Atomic Number is a breezy opening. Soft singing individually in the verses, lines shared between voices which then combine for the chorus. I like the chorus more; it feels more real somehow - I think because Case in particular sounds a little throttled in the verse and not at all in the harmony, where she dominates. The backing is fairly generically sweet, and actually a little characterless; it lives and dies on the singing. That is a criticism that I think applies beyond the single track.
I am fitting this in on a Sunday evening, before going back to work after a week off tomorrow. I am tired and virtually braindead after a weekend of roleplaying both days. Saturday was brutal because I'd woken up at 3am that day and not got back to sleep. I mention this to appologise (to my future self reading this back, I guess) for the lack of detail of insight here. From that point of view the gentle and familiar music - in the sense of playing up to genre-typing, not my own familiarity with the specific tracks - is actually a blessing. It sort of rolls along easily, even when the text of the lyrical content is darker, as on Song for Judee, which Veirs leads nicely.
I said above that I was never a fan of k.d. lang; in truth I was never really aware of her music, even as I was aware of the name. I don't quite know how this built into a sneering attitude, but it did - the stupidity of youth would be my excuse.That is all the comment I can muster on Blue Fires, and even Delirium, with Neko Case off her full tilt, and bells backing up that deeply resonant lushness is half gone by the time I am done. Braindead, yes. I think this is the high point of the disc for me, based on the aforementioned car-based exposure, but I kinda hope it isn't as the song is less impactful each time I hear it. I was wooed by it first time because that voice is amazing, but since then I am hearing more of what it lacks compared Case's best work. I can't put a finger on those things in my current state - of course I can't, useless boy! - but whilst the singing is full-blooded, the arrangement falls flat.
This is all pleasant enough though hardly setting my world alight... until the first harmony on the chorus of Behind the Armory which is just lovely. The softly trilling guitar and string arrangement carries a so-so tune, thankfully augmented by some wind instruments as it goes, but the timbre and touch of the vocal here is gorgeous, even if the song ends abruptly. The transition to the next track is a really stark one too - as Best Kept Secret is a pacier number with prominent percussion. At 3 minutes 17 seconds long, this is one of the longer tracks on the album, and it feels it. In part this is a result of how bland I find the tune, but really I actually think it is more a comment on how exposure normalises things for us. The short tracks breed expectation of more of the same and the faster pace of this song means it crams more in, which means it feels like it should end sooner than it does and the 3.17 feels like about half as much more than it needed.
I cannot be fair to this disc in this state, closing my eyes when I am not typing (and even when I am) as my lids grow heavy. Nothing really stands out because the whole sound is registering less well, and because the general tone of the record is set as a sort of easy walking pace. It is an incredibly accessible album in that regard - there is nothing challenging here, it is comfortable in sound. I suspect that I am simply engaging on the surface level and that the nuance and craft is buried a level below which that my tired mind can unlock right now. The patterns are so familiar and gentle it is easy to pick them up and sway along with them. I can't get any deeper than "simple and supportive backing" and "gosh those voices combine nicely - though perhaps that, the latter in particular, is enough. The album is strongest, I feel, when two or more of our titular singers are in action together.
Just as I type that, Down I-5 starts, and here Case's voice carries in a nice floating sense over an arrangement that is dominated by drums, with the melody, such as it is, quiet beneath them both. It has an open, big sky quality to it that is just beautiful. There are moments where the voices combine and intertwine on this track too, but its that floating lonely opening that makes the song. Typical; how life likes to make us contradict ourselves like that. Anyway, the disc is almost done.
Georgia Stars has the sound of... something else I can't pin down. This is led by Veirs and perhaps it just sounds like a Veirs song but I don't think it is that simple. There is a particular quality to the notes and tone here. The twang and snap of the bass, lead guitar and percussion create a very distinctive sound and it annoys me that I cannot place what I think it sounds like. Oh well; that thought will have to go unaddressed as the music stops - the song is done and so is the album, and this post.
Atomic Number is a breezy opening. Soft singing individually in the verses, lines shared between voices which then combine for the chorus. I like the chorus more; it feels more real somehow - I think because Case in particular sounds a little throttled in the verse and not at all in the harmony, where she dominates. The backing is fairly generically sweet, and actually a little characterless; it lives and dies on the singing. That is a criticism that I think applies beyond the single track.
I am fitting this in on a Sunday evening, before going back to work after a week off tomorrow. I am tired and virtually braindead after a weekend of roleplaying both days. Saturday was brutal because I'd woken up at 3am that day and not got back to sleep. I mention this to appologise (to my future self reading this back, I guess) for the lack of detail of insight here. From that point of view the gentle and familiar music - in the sense of playing up to genre-typing, not my own familiarity with the specific tracks - is actually a blessing. It sort of rolls along easily, even when the text of the lyrical content is darker, as on Song for Judee, which Veirs leads nicely.
I said above that I was never a fan of k.d. lang; in truth I was never really aware of her music, even as I was aware of the name. I don't quite know how this built into a sneering attitude, but it did - the stupidity of youth would be my excuse.That is all the comment I can muster on Blue Fires, and even Delirium, with Neko Case off her full tilt, and bells backing up that deeply resonant lushness is half gone by the time I am done. Braindead, yes. I think this is the high point of the disc for me, based on the aforementioned car-based exposure, but I kinda hope it isn't as the song is less impactful each time I hear it. I was wooed by it first time because that voice is amazing, but since then I am hearing more of what it lacks compared Case's best work. I can't put a finger on those things in my current state - of course I can't, useless boy! - but whilst the singing is full-blooded, the arrangement falls flat.
This is all pleasant enough though hardly setting my world alight... until the first harmony on the chorus of Behind the Armory which is just lovely. The softly trilling guitar and string arrangement carries a so-so tune, thankfully augmented by some wind instruments as it goes, but the timbre and touch of the vocal here is gorgeous, even if the song ends abruptly. The transition to the next track is a really stark one too - as Best Kept Secret is a pacier number with prominent percussion. At 3 minutes 17 seconds long, this is one of the longer tracks on the album, and it feels it. In part this is a result of how bland I find the tune, but really I actually think it is more a comment on how exposure normalises things for us. The short tracks breed expectation of more of the same and the faster pace of this song means it crams more in, which means it feels like it should end sooner than it does and the 3.17 feels like about half as much more than it needed.
I cannot be fair to this disc in this state, closing my eyes when I am not typing (and even when I am) as my lids grow heavy. Nothing really stands out because the whole sound is registering less well, and because the general tone of the record is set as a sort of easy walking pace. It is an incredibly accessible album in that regard - there is nothing challenging here, it is comfortable in sound. I suspect that I am simply engaging on the surface level and that the nuance and craft is buried a level below which that my tired mind can unlock right now. The patterns are so familiar and gentle it is easy to pick them up and sway along with them. I can't get any deeper than "simple and supportive backing" and "gosh those voices combine nicely - though perhaps that, the latter in particular, is enough. The album is strongest, I feel, when two or more of our titular singers are in action together.
Just as I type that, Down I-5 starts, and here Case's voice carries in a nice floating sense over an arrangement that is dominated by drums, with the melody, such as it is, quiet beneath them both. It has an open, big sky quality to it that is just beautiful. There are moments where the voices combine and intertwine on this track too, but its that floating lonely opening that makes the song. Typical; how life likes to make us contradict ourselves like that. Anyway, the disc is almost done.
Georgia Stars has the sound of... something else I can't pin down. This is led by Veirs and perhaps it just sounds like a Veirs song but I don't think it is that simple. There is a particular quality to the notes and tone here. The twang and snap of the bass, lead guitar and percussion create a very distinctive sound and it annoys me that I cannot place what I think it sounds like. Oh well; that thought will have to go unaddressed as the music stops - the song is done and so is the album, and this post.
