Makes the fire, makes the ash

Dear friends,

1. It's taken me over a year but I finally started really listening to Diane Cluck's cd Countless Times. My favorite track on it, A Phoenix & Doves, starts with her familiar, clangy, almost clumsy strum, then gets hijacked by that voice. Recently, I read a description of Cluck's vocals being similar to Joanna Newsom, an easy comparison but an incorrect one. Newsom's voice, all rising chirps, is a little jarring at first, this we know. She uses it primarily to get her words across. Every. Word. Pings. Through. Cluck's voice is a more versatile thing; an almost painful, clarion sound that can just as easily go dark. Its malleability is never more evident than in this song when she sings the chorus line about "A phoenix & doves fly out in the morning." The line itself is all folk soprano prettiness; small panels of color. But the line is followed by an extended "Ah ah oh" vocalization that traditionally, should sound like what came before it; bright and lovely. Instead she goes up, then down, and ends it with one long vibrato-less sustain that comes off like weary sigh. I don't know why that limp resignation gets me. It such a small moment in the song, it only happens twice. And each time I hear it, I feel like I've been folded into that feeling.

Song to seek:

A Phoenix & Doves/Diane Cluck (YST link)

Buy Diane Cluck's Countless Times.

2. I realize I kinda left you hanging on the last post. What, no Ella and Louis download? Fine, fine, here's a little slice of pretty. Don't be scared by Louis and his intro horn, wait for Ella.

Song to seek:

Summertime/Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (YST link)

Buy Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's Porgy and Bess.

3. It's a fact! When I saw the title of the new A Sunny Day in Glasgow song, Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water,) I was a little terrified. The images it brings up aren't exactly soothing. The sound, of course, is the natural progression of ASDIG's mermaids doing 4AD indie. The Daniels sisters' voices join and swirl around one another, siren-like, beckoning the listener to join them in the water. Deep inside, you know what your fate will be, but why resist when it sounds so lovely? So you fall in the reverb and go under.

Song to seek:

Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water)/A Sunny Day in Glasgow (YST link)

Pre-order A Sunny Day in Glasgow's Scribble Mural Comic Journal.

Ahem, and come see A Sunny Day in Glasgow live at The Delancey on Saturday, February 17.

Love, D