Torch Song Trilogy AKA I Am A Lonely Painter

Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up-Cortney Tidwell

Oft referred to as "country goth", Cortney Tidwell's first record came out last year (there was an EP prior). I've also heard her compared to Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins), Melanie (by Lee Hazlewood no less) and Bjork. I'll go with Bjork. Not so much because of her vocals. Don't get me wrong...there is a similarity between the two. Cortney Tidwell is not Scandinavian, so she is missing that echoey quality so common in the chanteuses from the snowy regions. The songs do have a country quality, and they do remind me of Bjork...but they don't sound like Bjork. I'll explain it like this. Radiohead and Bjork always remind me of each other. Not because they sound alike, but because they make their way around a song the same way. The same unpredicability in their arraignments...I dunno, I can't explain it. It didn't surprise me a bit to discover Thom Yorke dueting with Bjork on her Dancer In The Dark record.

On this song, its the subject matter that draws the Bjork comparison. This song is about a love affair between an earthbound human and a starstruck alien. Seriously. Its beautiful and heartbreaking and remains one of the most beautiful things I've heard all year. The song builds and actually climaxes...these whoops start coming in at the end. The whole record is a beautiful record and an auspicious debut, but it'd be worth the price of admission for this song alone. When she sings "ooooooohhhhhh" at 2:43 into the song, oh lord, prepare yourself.

Now here's the shocker...their is a better version of the song. However, to appreciate it, you have to listen to the original first. It is, without question, not a song that you would listen to and think "hmmmm, I wonder how a remix of that would sound. A dance remix...". And yet....it happens. Ewan Pearson is the culprit. 2007 is almost done, but I'll tell you right now, this is my remix of the year.

Think of a time when you've been drunk. Not wasted, but warm drunk...you feel warm and happy and you don't care about tomorrow and you love everyone and you are dancing. Now imagine this...there is a disco ball and a beautiful happy vibe-ing crowd and the lights and the music and confetti drops from the ceiling which normally you find cheesy but tonight, oh tonight...its too beautiful for words.

that's what this sounds like. It's a song that you never want to end.

The Park-Feist

At the end of the year, it will be difficult to find someone on more "best of" lists that Feist. She is certainly the flavor of this month. Just a few nights ago, she was on Saturday Night Live as the choice of Brian Williams. His first choice was Bruce Springsteen, Feist was his second. Hey, that's saying something.

I didn't fall for her instantly. First song I heard was "Mushaboom". I liked it, I liked the video...however, at the time, i was like "eh, ok, its great" it was too clever for me. Now, I'd heard her before but didn't know I had heard her. Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People...she's on that. I did pick up her last record (Let it Die) and I did like it. That's it....I liked it. I have since gone back (I'm all about her now, after this latest record) and now love it. But at the time, er, ok. She's great and has a great voice but...

Worth the price of admission alone (my analogy of the day) was her cover of "Inside And Out" by the Bee Gees. Bars should be mandated by law to play this as the last song of the night...no, scratch that. The last song to dance to will be Cortney Tidwell. Then is the song you are kicked out of the bar to. Oh, if only I was DJ...

Honestly, its after I heard her latest record that I figured out something about her last record. I felt that on her last record (Let It Die) she held back too much. I wanted to hear more. Make sense?

So her latest is The Reminder. If you are at all into music, you've heard about it. Every reviewer has gushed and gushed and you know what, everyone's right! How often does that happen. Whats interesting is that this record is more stripped down that her past work. And yet...there's way more here. First single, "My Moon, My Man" was a sublime love song....somehow it reminded me of Squeeze (a good association). The remix, by Boyz Noise, also great...basically takes the original and makes Midnight Star sing it. Freak-A-Zoid indeed.

Then the next single, "1234"...well, you've heard it. Oh...don' t think you have. Trust me, you watch TV....you have. The new IPod Nano, this is the song the commercial uses. This kicks the song into the Top 30 on the Billboard chart, a position usually occupied by Carrie Underwood and Hoobastank. And sweet Lord, the crimes against humanity that is Nickelback. The best part is that the song is just a simple love song. And it features a banjo. And some of my favorite lyrics in ages, as in

Those teenage hopes who have tears in their eyes
Too scared to own up to one little lie

But those aren't the best songs on the record. She manages to tackle Nina Simone's "See-Line Woman" (retitled "Sealion Woman" and survive. There are few artists who can stand toe-to-toe with Nina Simone and not look like an idiot. Yet this version does Nina proud.

However, "The Park" is my favorite song. Remember how I said that I wanted more from her last record. I meant I wanted a bit more emotion, a little more gushing. But she's Canadian, where you just wouldn't do that sorta thing, ya know. She's not American, she's not arrogant enough to think that everyone needs to know her every thought and feeling. Are you listening, Alanis? Oh wait, she's Canadian too...

This is just her and her guitar and birds twerping in the background. Initially, its told in the third person...the narrator tells us about a woman who is looking for her former love in a park they used to frequent. But he doesn't show, he doesn't walk through. And Feist chides her for this, asking "why should he come back through the park?" and "Who can be sure of anything through the distance that keeps you from knowing the truth."

Its at the end, the devasting end, where she slips up. That's it, its almost as if she slips up. All her words before are so wise, it simply can't be her. But it is. It's her.

Why would you think your boy could become
The man who could make you sure he was the one?
The one
My one
My one

oh my

A Case Of You-Joni Mitchell

I grew up with folk music...Joan Baez, Boby Dylan, Buffy Saint-Marie, Peter, Paul & Mary. On and on it goes. That and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and the soundtrack to Shaft and a little Lena Horne. Thats what I remember growing up. My dad would come home from the steel mills and shut of the lights in the living room and lay on the floor and listen to one of his records while my mom would make dinner. Every so often a song would come on which would make my mom walk in and go "oh" and sigh because she loved the song. ("Silver Dagger" by Joan Baez, for example). And I'd go in there and sit with him. In the dark. Its probably where my love of music came from.

Surprisingly enough, my parents missed Joni Mitchell. And I never heard Blue. So I didn't hear this record until I was much older and was a total music dork. I read about it in reviews...its one of 'those' records, like The White Album or Highway 61 Revisited. But I'd never heard it.

The first time I did, I was blown away. Its very honest and clear and every song is beautiful and important. Her voice is angelic and well, the lyrics...its a given that Joni Mitchell is one of the greatest songwriters ever. And interestingly enough, its a folk record. Later the cadences and rhythms on her records would lean more towards jazz. But this is a folk record.

THE song on here, for me, is "A Case Of You". Lyrically its one of the most brilliant records ever written. On the surface, its funny and touching...the refrain is "I can drink a case of you, and still be on my feet, and still be on my feet." Underneath its a bit darker...."I'm frightened by the devil and I'm drawn to the ones who ain't" and "I met a woman, she had a mouth like yours, she knew your life, she knew your devils and your deeds, and she said, go to him, stay with him if you can, but be prepared to bleed." Utterly utterly devasting.

Over the years, Joni Mitchell has smoked her voice away. Gone is the clear folk singer from 30 years ago--on the original she sounds like the young girl she was on Blue. Her voice is much deeper, more world weary...and yet.

Just a few years ago, she released the record Both Sides Now, which consisted of 10 standards and two originals, done with an orchestra. The two originals are the title track and "A Case Of You." I read about it before I bought it...I was so excited but a little afraid...I didn't want this song to be messed up. Well, the first time, the orchestra played, the strings come in....and then her voice. I balled, of course. And yeah, her voice, its Marlboro Red deeper and scratchy and according to some, she can't sing anymore. An assertion I find laughable.

Some people have great voices. But they can't sing a song. They can't make you feel something, they can't break your heart. Ask Celine Dion or Mariah Carey or newly trained Madonna. Or as late, Barbra Streisand. It doesn't sound real, it doesn't sound honest. By striving for perfection, they lose the emotion.

Some people can sing a song. It doesn't matter that their voice is imperfect. They still sing beautifully, because they inhabit the song...the singer and the song fuse. (See Tom Waits and Bob Dylan). That happens on this song.

She retired for 5 years after this record....said she'd never sing again. However, inspired (I think, because of the lyrics) by the state of the world in the George Bush years, she was inspired to write again and recently released Shine. Thank God.