Tuesday 16 August 2011
Came so easy
In the last little while, I have been pretty obsessed with Karen Carpenter, captivated by her story and struggles, but mesmerized by her singing. Her voice is as close to perfect as any human’s can be, but on top of having perfect pitch, Carpenter had an amazing delivery, a sensitivity to her lyrics and the emotional weight they carry that is beyond reproach. At the same time as I’ve been playing “Superstar” over and over again on my iPod, I’ve been spinning All Of It Was Mine by The Weather Station in heavy rotation, and can’t help by draw some parallels between Karen Carpenter and Tamara Lindeman’s voices. Although in very different registers, Lindeman has the same uncanny ability as Carpenter to convey helplessness, sorrow, despair, hopefulness, anticipation, hesitation and longing in a single breath.
On “Trying”, accompanied by a solemn guitar and banjo, she murmurs “I am trying/trying not to let words just shake me up,” and the tension is palpable. That’s just one example from an album’s worth of similar precious moments that have been carefully and lovingly crafted by Lindeman and her producer and friend, Daniel Romano. The songs took shape in Romano’s basement after a failed attempt at recording in another studio left Lindeman empty-handed. The intimacy and relaxed environment may have triggered the process, but it’s the songs and performances on All Of It Was Mine that take centre stage. Lindeman’s folk tunes may be about the simplest, ordinary subject matter, but it’s the emotional current running underneath that spark them to life. “Yarrow and Mint” for instance, a song about flowers and weeds growing on her street, needing to know their names and scents, uses the words not to tell a linear story, but to convey an haunted feeling. “If it’s all a story, and a damn sad one at that, you might as well tell it beautifully,” Lindeman recently told Herohill in reference to the album’s last song, “If I’ve Been Fooled”, but that statement can just as easily be applied to the album as a whole. Coming in at just under 30 minutes, All Of It Was Mine may seem brief, but it carries an emotional wallop that leaves you satisfied.
All If It Was Mine is out today, August 16, 2011 on You’ve Changed Records.
MP3: The Weather Station “Everything I Saw”
Facebook: The Weather Station
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Cuff The Duke
