Darkness has been a friend to me

OK, I was originally going to do a review on the new Coldplay album. But I think everyone who reads this blog has it already, or has listened to it. I might still do one just to give people who have the album an idea of how I listen to stuff. But for now, we shall delve into a new artist I discovered last year.

And holy crap, its been a while since I've done one of these.

Liz Tormes - Limelight

I literally stumbled on this artist by accident. After some quick clips I decided to take a chance and grab it on iTunes. A couple of minutes into the album I had stop and start over, this was truely something different, and I wanted to reset my mind and sink into it.

This isn't a flashy, over produced record. In some ways, arrangements are quite simple, yet the subtleties in the music are profound. The whole album has an organic feel to it, making it feel like a casual live performance in your living room. There is a lot of excitement in the album, but it's driven by emotion not by meter. Very possible to do, but very difficult to do for a whole album. I'm constantly amazed that the songs are mostly to a moderate beat, yet the intensity can be so high.

Liz has a fantastic voice, and the lyrics are well polished. Liz can lend emotion to the music without having her vocals overpower the song. Sometimes her voice is sweet, sometimes very smokey, her range is fantastic. I also love the fact there are hardly any self-backing vocals on here. I feel those are used way too much (except for Charlotte Martin who is the queen of knowing how to use them effectivly), when they are used, they're very focused and perfectly executed. From time to time a male backing vocal will appear on Maybe You Won't, Black Luck, and Sorry. I call this out due to the perfection on how this vocal is weaved into the songs. You'll be surprised on how subtly it's used and yet gives a huge impact to the song.

I won't go song by song on this album for three reasons
1) I'm trying something different
2) I think that was boring people
3) Frankly, this is an album that should be bought as a whole.

However, I will point out some highlights

Black Luck is the strongest piece on here, the longest piece, yet it will seem to pass too quickly. The most organic piece on the album, it will sometimes seem to have no structure, yet it's the piece with the greatest punch, and will stick with you long after it's over. Everything on this song is crafted perfectly, and the male vocals I talked about above are used to perfection here. If you buy one song this year, this is it. I could not rate a song higher.

The other very strong songs on the album if you're a cherry picker is Better Days (with the best lyric on the album, "It's not that I don't want to be your girl, I just don't want to be"), Limelight, Without Truth, Sorry and Fade Away.

The other songs aren't as strong, but they should not be considered weak. To quote Coupling "One of them has to be better". When listened to as an album, every song gets a boost by the atmosphere created by the surrounding pieces.

If there is a weak spot on here, it's the song Maybe You Won't, which doesn't seem to deliver like the other songs, and never really gets going.

If you're more popish, then Don't Love Back and Without Truth will probably be your favorite tracks. This album pretty much has something to offer for everyone.

One final note about this incredibly positive review. I have an iTunes playlist "My Mood" where I take songs in and out of as my mood strikes me. This album got added there a week after I bought it last November. It has not ever left that playlist.

It is the only album I own to claim that.

Maybe you're right but I don't think so

OK, no album review....yet. This one is pretty much going to be rapid fire since it's after midnight

First off, if you have kids, go buy the Barenaked Ladies kids album "Snacktime". Here's a music video from it that Gavin just loves. I'll admit the song is getting stuck in my head somewhat as well.



I'm done painting Ian's room, we went with two colors, you know, advanced stuff. What I don't understand is a gallon of paint usually is good for the bedrooms I've painted so far. So why is it with only painting two walls each, the paint cans are almost empty? Maybe you always subconsciously allocate the paint on the wall to what you have? Or maybe Gavin used a lot more paint on the little parts of the wall he did than I thought...

BTW, I'm having trouble with a lyric again for this one, we'll see what I come up with, iTunes shuffle is on.

Speaking of iTunes, why is it they have every freaking Barenaked Ladies video EXCEPT for Pinch Me? Which is the one I would actually buy.

Speaking of buying, will people shut up about the InBev buyout? And by people, I mean politicians who posture like they have any influence on this at all. As I've said, I don't mind stupidity, it's WILLFUL stupidity that pisses me off. (ah, there's the lyric title, thanks Barenaked Ladies). Frankly, its just insulting you think we're that stupid. Especially since now the deal's done you'll be cozing up to the new owners. Oh, and by the way those of you who think it's your patriotic duty to stop drinking Budweiser fall into that bucket as well. If you want to be patriotic, drink even more so less people who work here in St. Louis don't lose their jobs. Alcoholics, we're counting on you.

From a business point of view, the buyout makes good business sense. I hope that in the long term St. Louis will benefit from the global reach. This is unlike the stupidity that is happening between Microsoft and Yahoo. As my father is prone to say, 80% of the mergers/buyouts that happen are because of ego, not good business. This is definitely an ego purchase. It's like the dog chasing the car, once he catches it, what's he doing to do with it? (I apologize to the female dogs who would accuse me of gender bias in that last sentence, of course you chase cars too). Microsoft should be running from the deal, and Yahoo should be begging them to buy. Instead both parties being run by ego.

My wife probably got bored and left after that last paragraph, let's get out of the business world.

Speaking of something more interesting, Ian is doing much better now. We actually get sleep, and I can actually type with two hands tonight. Hence the lack of posting (there's always a reason, isn't there. I haven't even dug that deep into the bucket of excuses). Our wonderful Dr. Allison suggested putting some towels under his mattress so he can sleep at an angle, and it worked quite wonderfully.

Speaking of Ian, Andi, I told you earlier by email that you don't need to bring anything over to visit the baby. You never listen to me. So you'll come over this weekend. Clear your calendar.

Speaking of visits, our finished basement had it's first guests over the 4th of July from A&S who brought their daughter Maya who's gotten much bigger. Her phrase right now is "dop dop" which is quite cute when you hear it. Anyway, they didn't complain or run screaming out of the guest room, so I guess the money was well spent.

The playroom also survived a 4 hour play date with Gavin's friend J. I shudder to think of the damage these two can do when they get older. Frankly as much fun as he has with J, playtime with C is much easier on my nerves.

Thanks again to A&A (you know, this tradition of abbreviating names just irritates me sometimes) for helping paint the basement. After that and Ian's room I have lost all desire for the task.

Holy crap, has it been 30 minutes already? How did that happen?

Speaking on money spent (3 paragraphs up, stick with me), could I stop spending money on the house for a bit? After the basement was done, you'd think I'd let it sit. But no, I have to buy a bookshelf, curtains (which I haven't installed yet), new blinds for Ian's room, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something in there. I need some time to recover for my credit card's sake.

Speaking of credit cards (see, we're back on track now), my credit card company decided to improve their systems. Improving their systems apparently involves giving me a new credit card number. I don't understand how that is necessary, since we still have the same # of digits. I had my old number nice and memorized, now I have to actually look for my wallet if I want to make an impulsive purchase online. So thank you for changing my credit card account I guess.

Those of you who chuckled 8 paragraphs up are just sick. I'm too tired to change the sentence though.

Speaking of sentences (this one's a stretch, stick with me), apparently Gavin can actually write letters. He attended his first afternoon adventure, which is apparently like an afternoon school like program, or getting kids used to pre-school, or something like that. I'll let Pam field the questions on what it is. Anyway, he came home with traces of the letter A (and a). Frankly the only thing I've seen this kid do with a crayon is turn a kid's menu monochromatic (that's right, 1am and still churning the multi-syllable advanced words). So I was surprised to see he could actually do that kind of thing. Apparently he loves "school" and can't wait to go back. Apparently he was so energetic, he used up all his energy as I had to carry him up to bed tonight as he fell asleep on the couch an hour before bedtime.

Speaking of bedtime....seriously, did you need me to finish that?