Tracklist:1. True Love Will Find You in the End (Daniel Johnston)
2. Just One Time (Juicy Lucy)
3. Here Before (Vashti Bunyan)
4. Just Like Honey (The Jesus & Mary Chain)
5. To You (I am Kloot)
6. Blues Run the Game (Jackson C. Frank)
7. Hey, Who Really Cares? (Linda Perhacs)
8. Nobody's Baby Now (Nick Cave)
9. The North Wind Blew South (Philamore Lincoln)
10. See My Love (The Gentle Soul)
General Ratings:
Music: 7
Scope: 4
Consistency: 7
RIYL: Neko Case, The Handsome Family, mid-period Cat Power
Further Listening: Alela Diane, Kelly Hogan, Tarnation
Place of Origin: New York City, NY
Instrument/Sounds List: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Electric & Upright Bass, Drums, Keyboard/Synthesizer, Piano, Strings, Pedal/Tape Manipulation, Multi-tracked Vocals, Xylophone/Glockenspiel, Trumpet, Harp, Zither, Organ.
Mood Tones:
Season: Fall
Weather: Overcast
Time of Day: Dusk
Song Highlights: To You, Just One Time, True Love Will Find You in the End
Other Thoughts:
Before I get into album specifics, I'd like to start by talking about a larger trend that I see emerging in indie music over the last 5 years or so that this album contributes to, namely, the growing popularity of the deconstructive cover album. The notion that a song belongs to its author, and that their initial performance of it is the bar that all subsequent performances should be measured against probably dates to the mid-60's when the idea of pop music as a legitimate artistic endeavor was first gaining traction. It can be instructional to go back and listen to some of the records released in the 40's and 50's when most (if not all) of the songs on any given album were standards written by professional songwriters who mostly labored in quiet obscurity in places like the Brill Building. The performer's job, it seems, was to take the songwriter's raw material and bend it to their style of delivery and emotive prowess, and that it was this act of interpretation that was the real product being sold.
But when the focus shifted, and the product that a band was selling became more unified (i.e. the authoritative performance of a song that they themselves have written and arranged), the idea of the standard gave way to the cover. When the Byrds covered Bob Dylan, most of their audience's concept of the songs they were singing were inseperable from the initial recording that Dylan had made of each song. It made the act of performing someone else's material an act of reference rather than an act of appropriation, and while we can all think of some notable exceptions (Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower" and Jeff Buckley's take on "Hallelujah" spring to mind), the consequence was that the overwhelming majority of covers came to be tributary; they were played in the same style as the original, often with the same instruments and the same solos. A band would acknowledge their debt to an influential forebearer by trying (and often failing) to beat their idols at their own game, banking on the belief that each successive rendition only added to the renown of the first.
However, the pendulum has taken a sharp swing back this past decade, perhaps in part due to the fanboyishness of certain famous performers (e.g. Kurt Cobain, Bono, etc.), but also, I would argue, due to the singular influence of Cat Power's The Covers Record. Here was a collection of songs from fairly disparate sources, that were mostly familiar to Ms. Marshall's target audience, but at the same time almost unrecognizable from their source material (I've played her cover of "Satisfaction," probably the most well-known original of the group, for dozens of people, and almost none of them have been able to identify it). Choruses were torn off, verses were looped, songs came to abrupt ends. She had a very clear idea not only about which songs she wanted to use, but also of the specific parts of each song and how she would remake them in her own image to convey only what she wanted. The finished product bore at least as much of her stamp as it did its previous owner's, and the strongest impression that you were left with when you finished listening to the album was that it sounded just like the rest of her records. It was an autobiographical collage more than anything else.
So here we are in the present day (finally) with The Silence of Love. On the one hand, like many of its contemporaries (e.g. Melody Mountain by Susanna & the Magical Orchestra) the debt that it owes to The Covers Record is undeniable, as it adopts a similar tone and draws from the same pool of 60's and 70's folk rock and 80's and 90's alternative music (with the notable exception of I Am Kloot's "To You"). More importantly, it also establishes and maintains its own sonic fingerprint, twisting the music to itself rather than vice versa, each song easily flowing into the next, dancing around similar themes of isolation and disappointment. On the other hand, one does get the sense that the album intends a healthy amount of tribute; The band's name refers to a Eugene McDaniels album, the album title to either a poem by Oscar Wilde, one by A.E. or perhaps a Luiz Bonfa song...who knows? Two-thirds of the songs are obscure enough that even most music lovers won't have heard of them (I'll admit I only caught 4: "True Love," "Here Before," "Just Like Honey" and "Nobody's Baby Now"), so it would seem that part of the point is nodding to the Obscure Objects of an audiophile's Desire. Although this may strip TSOL of some of the pleasures common to a covers record (e.g. comparing the new recordings to their source material to see where convention is subverted and where it's maintained), it also keeps them from retreading songs that have been done over and over, rubbed down to shiny cliche (cf. "Hallelujah," half of the Beatles catalog). In fact, if the concept doesn't interest you, it's not that hard to disregard the fact that this album is a covers record entirely.
Although she isn't the primary mover behind Headless Heroes (which would be Eddie Bezalel), the first thing you're likely to notice when you put the album on is Alela Diane's voice, which is atypically robust and pretty for an indie record. Ms. Diane has made a name for herself as a solo artist, having released two albums and toured with the likes of Joanna Newsom (a fellow Nevada City native) and Vashti Bunyan (whose "Here Before" is one of the tracks covered here). While Ms. Diane's voice is certainly pleasing and her delivery well-nuanced, you never get the sense that she's especially invested in the material, except perhaps on "To You" and "Just One Time," and it's the resentment and desperation that she lets seep into her voice on those two cuts that makes them the best on the record.
Musically speaking, The Silence of Love falls somewhere between the folk rock of the artists whose catalogs it draws upon and the nocturnal spookiness of some contemporary alt country acts like the Handsome Family. On most of the songs there is an interesting interplay between two electric guitars (one on each side of the mix) and the bass, each taking turns at the lead within a song, often finishing each others sentences. They're also selective in their arrangements, choosing at times to keep things simple with just an acoustic guitar (cf. "Blues Run the Game"), at others employing over a dozen different instruments to fill out the soundscape (cf. "See My Love" and "Just One Time"). To my ear, the fuller sound heard on the first and last thirds of the record are not only more interesting, but more convincing, sadder and creepier. When it draws from its fullest pallette, this is a record best listened to alone with the lights out, in a mood that's closer to gray than blue. Let's not miss the forest for the trees.
The Downside:
At first, the air of aloofness that Ms. Diane sometimes displays seems nothing more than a missed opportunity, not a strength and not a detriment, but upon repeat listens it can come to feel like a hole at the center of the record, leaving the worst offenders feeling a bit ephemeral, a bit under-cooked. The band is chiefly concerned with the establishment and maintenence of atmosphere, sometimes at the expense of the central melodies of a song, a good or bad thing depending on your personal predilections. More importantly, they never really do anything to try to transcend the genres that they've chosen to work within, but then again, when as much thought has gone into the selection process as obviously has here, perhaps drawing inside the lines is the better part of the point anyways.
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