Paedantic Basterd

I received the following, and shall review it as I go.



Artist: Veronica Falls
Album: Veronica Falls
Year: 2011
Genre: Indie Pop, Twee Pop, Jangle Pop

Found Love in a Graveyard is a nice start. Somber, a little awkward sounding. Vocally what I expect of twee pop, but not musically. I haven't heard a ton of twee pop, but "dark" is not a word I'd expect to use to describe a twee song. Some nice layered vocals. Right Side of My Brain is cool too, a little more garage-rock than twee, but that works for it. The bass and guitar make some pretty cool transitions in the verses and bridge. The Fountain is likewise vaguely haunting. Some cool start-stops in Bad Feeling. Stephen has some rad wobbly guitars in it. And so on.

I'm trying to pin down who the female singer reminds me of, but I can't figure it out. Lush? Anyways, she's a little beige sounding for my liking, but it doesn't harm the album. On the whole, it's a fun album that isn't obnoxiously upbeat and positive sounding. There aren't really any mind-blowing stand-out tracks, but it's consistently pleasant and interesting. I will definitely keep this with the intention of listening to it again.

Rating: 3 / 5 stars. This is good, this is above average. I pretty much give everything I like a 3 on RYM and then bump it up the more I listen to it.

WHODUNNIT: I'm going to guess that this came from Nea. First, it's something I think he'd like that I think he'd think I'd like (correct) based on our Plug participation, and second, this was recommended despite my failing-to-sign-up and I feel like Nea is the most likely person to include someone who didn't actively participate.

Whoever it is though, thank you! Solid recommendation, you done good!

EDIT: I am including this in my top albums of 2011 and my top albums under 40 minutes. Good stuff.

Neapolitan

artist:Tia Blake
album title: folksongs & ballads
year: 1971
genre: Old-Time, Folk
tracklist:

1. Betty And Dupree
2. Black Is The Color
3. Single Girl
4. I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow
5. Jane, Jane
6. Jimmy Whalen
7. Rising Of The Moon
8. Hangman
9. Turtle Dove
10. Plastic Jesus
11. Polly Vaughn

First impressions: The one thing that first stood out for me were the vocals. They are a bit different I am accustom to hearing, but the music was really good and piqued my curiosity. How a singer sounds makes or breaks it for me. If I don't care for how vocals sound I usually skip over the band or artist. However that isn't always the case. Sometimes it takes me a while to get accustom to a singer. It took me a while to get use to Joni Mitchell, but now I love her voice. Karen Dalton is another one whose singing style took a while for me to get use to, but I didn't pass her stuff by because I knew there was something special there and the same is true for Tia Blake.

So I figured I should compare Tia's vocals to someone else' you might identify with - in case you are interested in checking her out own your own. I went through quite a few female Folk singers to find someone to compare Tia to, and the closest I think is Bridget St John, maybe Shirley Collins - maybe. At times Angel Olsen projects her voice like Tia Blake and other female Folk singers of that era.


Songs:
Betty And Dupree was a Blues number by Brownie McGhee, the lyrics reminds me of Frankie and Johnny by Mississippi John Hurt. Chuck Willis also did a cover of the song. He had a hit with The Stroll turn the music of Betty And Dupree into a song that can do Stroll.
Black Is The Color starts off somewhat similiar to Greensleeves, but changes to a Flamenco-style playing.
Single Girl probably my favorite song on the album, mostly because of the guitar duet in the background. Both play arpeggios and sound similar to style of Chad and Jeremy.
I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow I am familiar with the song because of Roscoe Holcomb. I picked up his album because it was part of the Smithsonian Folkways catalog. I was pleasantly surprised that Bob Dylan mentioned him as influence. The backing track easily sounds like Union Station (who backed Alison Krauss) with Dan Fogelberg sitting in with them. The song resurfaced in again in 2000 with the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" It was performed by the fictitious group the Soggy Bottom Boys.
Jane, Jane starts off just like a Chet Atkins song. - Who's he? Just think of the "Esurance" commercial. The song was covered by Peter, Paul and Mary who treated their version of the song with their usual three part harmony.
Jimmy Whalen it starts off what sounds like wooden flute, and appears again after the first verse. The lyrics do well to visualize the short but sad story.
Rising Of The Moon an Irish folk song.
Hangman The Kingston Trio does a song by the same name, but the lyrics are somewhat different. Peter, Paul & Mary
Turtle Dove is a lovely song. Once it gets started it draws to mind the song John Barley Must Die by Traffic, probably because of the melody and the chimey guitars. It ends with a flute solo.
Plastic Jesus it starts off with a Old Time dobro The song has a melody very close to "Keep on the Sunny Side" a song popularized by The Carter Family. Tia sings it more sincerely than perhaps the author intended it to be?
Polly Vaughn is the last song on the original release of the album. It is a rather strong ending. It is a male/female vocal duet.

Thoughts: Folksongs & ballads is a solid album, it consists of eleven in domain songs that was recorded in Paris. (The best jpg I could find was that of the French release, notice how it has the pronoun wrong in the title. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Que sera sera. ) Not sure if Tia got a recognition for music in her day. So basically I like this album cause it fits in with many of my other favorite one-offs that get recorded and nearly get forgotten about, like Sibylle Baier etc. If it wasn't for someone who cared about their music, helping to get known to the rest of the world it would be all but lost to the ages.

WHODUNNIT??? When I first saw the album title immediately thought of three people who would possibly recommend this album to me: Stephen, Pet Sounds, and Lisna. If I had to guess who recommended this album I would say Pet Sounds, but I didn't see him on the list. This album is right up my alley. Whoever selected this album knows I am a fan of Folk music.

rating:4/5*
reason: I gave it a 4/5 because I really love the guitar playing throughout the album. I also liked Tia's soft solemn way of singing.

*I am uncomfortable using numbers to rate album. There is something that doesn't seem right in reducing personal feelings down to mere fractions i.e. 1/5 to 5/5. Another thing too is there are albums I really enjoy on my own I wouldn't recommend fearing they would never go over. So I unsure if my 5/5 is anyone's 5/5. And I kinda need breathing space too where if I think 5/5 could be overturned by new discovery. So I usually the highest I ever like to give out is a 4/5 with idea there's room to grow.

Thanks to whoever rec this album. cheers!

__________________

Justthefacts

Love this one. Never bothered with their 2nd one because I love this one so much.

__________________
The Best Collection You'll See Today

Exo

Steve Howe
The Steve Howe Album

I don't know if he's been confirmed for another member in the bowels of these pages I haven't read yet but my guess is a strong finger point at Nea for this one.

Starts off exactly as I thought it would after seeing that it was a prog album from the late 70's and recommended by who I assume is Nea. I'm so fickle when it comes to prog albums. You have to really stay away from that E,L&P sound to impress me and so far this album has been doing it. The first track "Pennants" has some great guitar work on it and some signature synth work. I'm digging so far. Second track "Cactus Boogie" is aptly named. This track is like a honky tonk western movie montage. The drastic difference between the first two tracks has me pretty excited to see where this whole thing is going to go. It's like a proggy King Gizzard album. Lol, just kidding, no it's not.

I just remember to add that first track to my 60's/70's rock/blues/prog playlist.

Alright. I'm not into the vocals unfortunately. Stick to the guitar Steve.

Still some really great guitar work on here though. I'm really enjoying the country/bluegrass influences on this album. It's like a pallet cleanser for your ears. Crisp guitar work and violin/fiddle. I like that. One time I was at a Between the Buried and Me show, and I forget exactly what track this is featured on, but they break down into a bluegrass jam for about 25 seconds and it totally filled the room with joy before we got back to the aggression. It's neat.

Wow. This album just got all classical on me with this "double rhondo" track. It's a little too "Asia" for me but by no means a bad track at all. In fact, this whole album has been a nice listen with some really great highlights for me. I have one more track to go but I'll just go on to say that I enjoyed this very much. It was able to slip under the wall I have set up that seems to block out a lot of prog stuff and only let a few bands/artists into my brain. It's an achievement really. Love all the different sounds with the bluegrass and classical pieces.

Nice quiet piece to end this. Thanks for the album Nea(Or another person if my guess was wrong).

__________________
LastFM

SUPREME POO BAH MODERATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

The Batlord

__________________

Chula Vista

LOL. Had this exact same thought 38 years ago. Also, here's the original cover.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

MicShazam

I really don't get why they would change the art that way. Embarassed of the floating, naked man?

Chula Vista

They changed it when it first came out on CD. No clue why.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Exo

There we go.

__________________
LastFM

SUPREME POO BAH MODERATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Aloysius

The Books - The Lemon of Pink

I'd never heard of them before, this has elements of musique concrète, american folk, some stuff that reminds me of The Residents, often moving into polyrhythmic and microtonal territory. Basically this has Frownland written all over it. Actually really digging it so far so I'll give it more listens. In spite of the large number of layers and feel changes each track has a coherent groove.

I'll have to listen to this more to give it a score but it has to be at least 8/10.