Experimental singer-songwriter
- Thread starter blissblogger
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the generally terminally so-so Armatrading in unusually expansive mood. light-stepping jazz-funky at first, great piano, pastorian fretless bass, a spot of mock-Bach, ’lectric piano duel, a becalmed improv-y hollow, rapturous jammy outro:
obvs goes great with jazz-era Joni and MMOH
obvs goes great with jazz-era Joni and MMOH
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shakahislop
Well-known member
i think the latter work of mark kozelek kind of fits in here. he started off in the 90s as more or less a slowcore guy but by the end he was putting out two or three albums a year of 'songs' where he increasingly was just saying 'i did this and then i did this and then i watched a film and i liked it and then i went and talked to my wife and then i went to a resutrant i like and i ate a sea bass............and then i sexually assaulted one of my fans'........well ok he mostly elided the last bit, there was at least some filter...
not that impressive taken song by song but over the years it's an interesting deconstruction of that singer songwriter thing. which mostly relies on revealing specific minimal details, it's a bit of a dance, creating the impression of soul bearing and giving you something relatable, but also holding back a lot and keeping a mystique. carefully chosen words and a lot of romance. kozelek used to do that as well but he slowly leaned into no longer doing the dance and pretty much just talking over whatever accompaniment him and his mates could bodge together. functioning somewhere between music and a podcast.
was interested to see where all of that was going to end up because he was pushing it to more and more of an extreme as time went on, with apparently no interest in quality control, but his cancellation seems to have been the end of it. a kind of fitting end in some ways. one of the things that shone through that whole project was how lonely it seems to be for him flying around as a touring musician.
not that impressive taken song by song but over the years it's an interesting deconstruction of that singer songwriter thing. which mostly relies on revealing specific minimal details, it's a bit of a dance, creating the impression of soul bearing and giving you something relatable, but also holding back a lot and keeping a mystique. carefully chosen words and a lot of romance. kozelek used to do that as well but he slowly leaned into no longer doing the dance and pretty much just talking over whatever accompaniment him and his mates could bodge together. functioning somewhere between music and a podcast.
was interested to see where all of that was going to end up because he was pushing it to more and more of an extreme as time went on, with apparently no interest in quality control, but his cancellation seems to have been the end of it. a kind of fitting end in some ways. one of the things that shone through that whole project was how lonely it seems to be for him flying around as a touring musician.
Woebot
Well-known member
shakahislop
Well-known member
blissblogger
Well-known member
what a great sound
it took me a long while to realise he was never going to open his mouth and sing
