[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

“Sleep All Summer” – The National and St. Vincent
(Words/music: Eric Bachmann, available on SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers!, Merge Records, 2009) 

The first ever second post on a single song!  Here’s what I said about the original version last October:

Sonically, it feels like these warm October afternoons, specifically in the way the guitar sounds.  The gently picked acoustic guitar sounds warm yet tempered by the wistful slide guitar lines that gently come and go.  Whenever the bright notes cut through to the forefront, the somber slide guitar swoops back in like a cool breeze.  Eric Bachmann and Lara Meyerratken’s vocals tug at these emotional strands as well. Bachman, especially when reaching for the higher notes, sounds bright especially when contrasted with Meyerratken’s even-keeled vocals.  It’s when they sing together that Bachmann and Meyerratken bring out the best in each other’s voices and channel that early autumnal warmth.  Even without listening to the words, it’s clear that these two characters sound conflicted – in this case, it’s a longing to reconnect with a lover while realizing that the spark is gone.  Lots of pop songs use the seasons as a metaphor for life, but few feel as focused on the moments of flux between seasons as “Sleep All Summer.”  It captures the feeling of summer’s last moments before fall.  Like the love between these characters, change is inevitable, for better or worse.

And even in June, I’m not going to argue with that logic.  If anything, The National’s Matt Berninger’s deeper voice sounds even more autumnal than Eric Bachmann.  Like Bachmann and Meyerratken in the original, Berninger and Annie Clark play off each other, letting their voices gently intertwine during the chorus without becoming completely inseparable.  It’s a faithful homage to the original without being redundant, largely because it’s nice to hear Berninger and Clark sing together.  Hearing it now at the beginning of the summer, I’m more drawn to the breezy tone rather than the somber story; in short, I hope my summer is full of evenings where “Sleep All Summer” would be an appropriate soundtrack.

More on The National: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

More on St. Vincent: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: the national | St. Vincent | cover song | crooked fingers | 2009 | 2000s | merge records | Summertime |
21 Tumblr Notes

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

“The Strangers” – St. Vincent
(Words/music: Annie Clark, available on Actor, 4AD 2009)  

One of Annie Clark’s gifts as a songwriter is the ability to make an arrangement quickly and skillfully change directions without sacrificing cohesion.  While abrupt changes work to jar the listener, Clark does this to further stories rather than derail them.  Instead, these songs shift their weight and refocus momentum in a different direction without losing steam.  “The Strangers,” the opening to last year’s Actor album, starts out fragile and graceful before focusing all its weight behind Clark’s distorted guitar riff.  It works well in part because Clark adds the riff on top of the looping flute and echoing voice, giving the song not only a harder edge but also intensifying the chaotic feeling.

The opening calm is deceptive by design, though.  Throughout the song, Clark repeats the phrase “make the black hole blacker” in an almost hypnotic trance or like a destructive mantra.   Whether this character feels detached by design or withdrawn against her will, the narrator seems focused on the deepening, intensifying void itself rather than all of the details and consequences of it.  In this sense, she’s waiting for the bottom to fall out right from the beginning of the song, anticipating the moment where the last shred of sanity gives way and plunges her into chaos.  Clark plays out this dark moment musically rather than lyrically and opens a few doors for her narrative – is it an imagined collapse or does the breakdown actually happen, for instance.  As an opening to her album (and one called Actor, nonetheless), she sets the stage for these contradictions to play out or, at least, to see if and when the bottom actually collapses.

More on St. Vincent: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: st. vincent | annie clark | 2009 | 2000s | 4AD |
7 Tumblr Notes

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

“Jesus Saves, I Spend” – St. Vincent
(Words/music: Annie Clark, available on Marry Me, Beggar’s Banquet 2007)

For someone who appears so emotionless in her album covers, Annie Clark has a wonderful sense of humor.  Her first album Marry Me comes from an Arrested Development joke, and contains many playfully clever songs.   “Jesus Saves, I Spend” takes a nod from the title’s pun and sounds slightly off-kilter.  Clark puts the song in triple meter, making it feel like a slightly drunken waltz.  Still, Clark executes all of the elements that make the song seem a little goofy with precision.  Her backing vocals and bursts of distorted guitar seem whimsical rather than sloppy or ill-timed, and Clark’s main vocal line nimbly bounds from measure to measure over the arrangement.  Specifically, using her own voice as the persistent backing vocal line gives the song a strange, almost claustrophobic feel; it almost sounds like we’re inside her head, listening to her navigate all of the different thoughts shooting in and out each second.  This speaks highly of Clark’s ability as an arranger – even with all of these different ideas competing in her song, she adeptly pulls everything together.  The final product might sound a little strange, but it’s clearly odd by design, as Clark sounds consistently in command, making these disjointed parts sound like a cohesive whole.

Clark released her second album Actor this week and after a couple listens I’m struck by her musicianship even more than I was on Marry Me.  I saw her perform live last fall and was blown away by her technical prowess, and Actor drives that aspect home.  Her songs shift moods at an even quicker pace, often in the middle of a song, as the opening track (and probably More Songs Considered candidate) “The Strangers” shifts about two thirds into it.  If “Jesus Saves, I Spend” drives home her skills as an arranger, Actor represents a more mature songwriter willing to maximize her musical talents.

TAGGED UNDER: st. vincent | annie clark | 2007 | 2000s | track analysis | beggar's banquet |
3 Tumblr Notes

Based on a theme created by: Roy David Farber and Hunson. Powered By: Tumblr | Email SSC
1 of 1
Email Me: Email No spam please.