Saturday 24 October 2009

What's that ringing in my ears?


These are a few of the albums I'm loving at the moment, and some of the reasons why; no apologies for length, I want to do these justice!

1) Mumford & Sons- Sigh No More


This album is one that took a while for me to start to enjoy. At first I thought it a bit 'samey' with a lack of the type of journeying that I love to hear in an album. However, like a good mature cheese, Mumford & Son's charm became inescapable. Firstly there's Marcus Mumford's uniquely refreshing voice. Sandy and rough in tone but right on-the-money melodically. No Dylan-esque slurring here, just clear as day presentation with real emotional clarity. The album has a real 'vibe' that's very hard to explain or summarise. It's organic I suppose. Upright piano, banjo, acoustic guitar, tambourine and so on. These instruments are not synthetic, but go straight into the mic, into the mix and into the ears. It's refreshing in the current music culture that includes a great deal of computerised sonic constituents.

This album has it all for me. Honesty, rich organic sound, great vibe, emotional depth, great vocal harmonies, some potent and provocative lyrics, (like "Awake my soul...for you were meant to meet your maker"), foot stomping drums, and hoe-down like outbursts of intensity. It evokes Autumnal imagery for me. I can almost smell the wood-smoke when that banjo gets going! (Maybe I'm just weird!)

2) Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix





This album is my first introduction to French band Phoenix, and i decided to give it a listen after seeing them perform live on the Conan O' Brian show. I loved the guitars in the track 1901 and thought the musicianship was consummate. The album has a nice energy to it. It doesn't twist your arm and shout at the listener, but is punchy in a more welcoming way. It's the kind of music you hear in mobile-phone adverts and maybe that's a downside, however it moves along nicely with a combination of more conventional sound (some of it reminds me of 'The Thrills') and more typically French excursions into electronica based songs. They have struck the appropriate balance between the two really nicely...

Highlights are 1901, Lisztomania, and Lasso. All of which have particularly nice guitar harmonies!

3) Imogen Heap - Ellipse




I have been somewhat captivated by her INTENSELY RICH sound for quite a few years now, and her newest album is no exception. In some ways it is like a more mature expression of what she has already done. A little less poppy, and with lyrical content that doesn't sound so much like a column in a teen-girl mag. Heap's sound is so stunning for so many reasons. The de-essed, breathy, delay sound of her vocals is always haunting, and the attention to detail in the arrangements is staggering. There is so much going on, so many little details, punctuations, samples, manipulated sounds etc that all go to form her technicolor sound. It has a breathtaking depth. Somehow this complex myriad of sounds never sounds crowded and messy. Her talent as a singer, producer, sound engineer, programmer, etc all culminate in a beautiful album. It is sufficiently varied from track to track, and the songs thankfully follow the same trends as her previous work (vocoders, intricately programmed rhythms, the symbiosis of acoustic and electronic, intriguing lyrics).

She is the master of all things original, a talent owed to her passion for recording the most obscure sound sources and manipulating them beyond recognition with her shocking aptitude for all things technical. There are sounds whose sources you would NEVER recognise unless told. (Some of the bass in the song "2-1" is from a recording of a jaw harp, and the high hats are actually a trumpet player tapping the keys against the valves)

From 'Earth' which sounds like a Bobby McFerrin tribute, to 'The Fire' a wonderfully organic interjection in an otherwise electronic album and a song that showcases what should be the benchmark for sound engineers who want to know what recording a piano should sound like, this album is just so brilliant. It's haunting, quirky, ethereal and inexpressably rich. One that you could listen to forever and hear new things each time. Spectacular.

4) John Mayer- Continuum




Obviously this album is nothing new, but in a sense that's why it's on this list. While it's fairly well known and old by now, it is still on my most-played list. It really does live up to its title. This album has a durability that means I could probably listen to it once a day for the rest of my life. It's a desert Island disc gem. With about 50 times more depth than any of his other albums, Continuum is a fantastic collection of songs. 'Belief' while perhaps being a little contrived lyrically, is musically one of the best songs ever pieced together. It is an arrangement of riffs, rhythm and melody that simply works so coherently. It is SO palatable to the ears to hear all the parts of the arrangement flowing together; it genuinely brings me pleasure every time. I love Mayer's slightly graveled voice, his classic Strat-through a Vox guitar tone, and the authenticity with which the songs come across gives it the depth lacking in other efforts of wannabe Blues/pop artists.

'The Heart of Life' has a melody that would make even McCartney jealous, and 'Stop This Train' moves and journeys in such a pleasing way, opening up perfectly at the Mid8 and containing the ideal guitar pulse all the way through, imbuing the notion of momentum that any song with a train/journey theme should carry.

5) Thomas Newman- 'Road to Perdition' (movie soundtrack)



I have loved this album for years, and am perhaps one of Newman's biggest fans. This is another album that rarely strays far from my eardrums. Like all his music, this soundtrack features his unique and original use of instruments in a way entirely unconventional. Clarinets blown so hard that they sound altogether more ghostly (the opening of 'Finn McGovern") and out of tune mandolin ("Meet Maguire")

While those sounds are the 'dark side' of Newman's music (this is after all a movie full of bloodshed and terror!) there is another side of his music, the side that most attracted me to it initially. Thomas Newman writes strings like no other composer-ever. I cannot put my finger on how he does it, but I think it's all in the harmonic voicing. The use of harmony and it's particular appropriation by the string section is absolutely beautiful. Listen to the strings in the opening track "1931" to get what I'm talking about. This string sound is essentially Newman's trademark, and you'll recognise it in American Beauty, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and more. Incredibly rich and so emotive.

The second Newman trademark is the delicate, almost nervous use of piano alongside these strings. The best example from this soundtrack is in the piece 'Ghosts' which incidentally accompanies my favourite scene in cinematic history. It echoes the imagery so immaculately. Anyway back to the point, the piano. It normally comes in a very small way, very slight and fragile. It's again a particular and consistent voicing approach that Newman has hit upon (namely a simple two or three part harmony, in the top half of the keyboard) that just works so well and has such huge impact for me. (Funny that it is the tiny sound that makes the biggest statement). It's the sound of the famous title track from American Beauty and the crushingly poignant piece that accompanies old Brooks's departure from Shawshank prison in The Shawshank Redemption that I'm referring to. When you hear it you'll know what I mean. Breathtakingly tragic.

Anyway that's all for now, if you've read this far. I've enjoyed trying to figure out what it is about some of this music that really hits the spot. Like analysis of anything artistic, often it raises appreciation. I only urge you to get online and check out some of this music for yourselves.

TTFN.

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