School Of Seven Bells, Benjamin
Francis Leftwich, & Dana Falconberry...
Hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome
To Songs Of The Week #16!
For those of you who are unfamiliar
with Songs Of The Week, each week we ask two of our contributors to
listen to The Current's Song Of The Day podcast and tell us what they
think of the songs
The podcast is free and if you'd
like to play subscribe (which we recommend), please click here.
Enjoy the songs for yourself and play along at home.
This week we asked MinneSarah &
TCDroogsma to give the tunes a listen. What they have to say may
shock you. That seems unlikely, but we've never met you. Maybe
you're easily shocked? Regardless... there were only three songs
this week thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday. Slim pickins' thanks
to the fattest of holidays. Isn't that ironic? Don't you think?
As always MinneSarah & TCDroogsma have not read each other's comments prior to posting. Also, be sure to vote in the poll to the
right of the page for your favorite Song Of The Day.
Ready, set... Review!
01.
School Of Seven Bells – Secret Days (from the EP Put
Your Sad Down)
MinneSarah:
This is an upbeat little electronic song. The singer has a breathy optimistic voice, the vocal elements build on each other, and it's got a catchy electronic and drum beat. Lyrically, these secret days are gone and the song mirrors the rosiness of hindsight and nostalgia for days past. However, I didn't really get sucked in to the inner workings of secret days, it just seemed really pretty.
TCDroogsma:
School Of Seven Bells is one of my all time favorite "shuffle" bands. What I mean by that is their songs are all great, but taken all together I get oppressively bored. I went and saw them at 7th St. a while back and even got bored then. Taken out of the context of an album (or, rather, shuffled to on my iPod), however, they all sound like gold. For 3-4 minutes at a time the combo of drum machines, ambient vocals, and just the right amount of hooks add up to something great.
If I were reviewing a whole SOSB album it probably wouldn't get a very high score. However, "Secret Days" as a single is pretty solid. I like this band a lot more when the guitar is prominent and that's not the case here. This almost sounds like a female-fronted version of Depeche Mode. I'll call that a win.
Final Score:
MinneSarah -3/5
TCDroogsma -3.5/5
02. Benjamin
Francis Leftwich – Atlas Hands (from the album Last Smoke Before
The Snowstorm)
MinneSarah:
Whoa dude, you've inspired me to go by
my full name always - it's a shame most people don't.
Plenty of
acoustic guitar-ness going on in this song! While this guy
tries to put some gravel into his voice, it doesn't seem like he's
really up to the task. This half gravel voice plus a female
counterpart on the final chorus actually sounds alright. With a
song title like “Atlas Hands,” I thought he would be talking
about holding the weight of the world on his shoulders, but the
lyrics are clearly more straight forward as in a geographical book
that will take him back to a place he loves. The delivery is a
lot more genuine and heartbreaking than the actual lyrics, but in all
honesty, that is what really counts.
TCDroogsma:
If I didn't know better, MPR, I'd swear you were trying to turn me against all people named Ben. After two straight weeks of Ben Gibbard warbling we get Benjamin Francis Leftwich, who clearly spent too many lonely nights with Transatlanticism.
"Atlas Hands" isn't necessarily a bad song. It's melody is agreeable enough and lyrically it... well... maybe it is a bad song. "I will remember your face because I am still in love with that place..." Ugh... Just follow her into the dark already, BFL.
Final Score:
MinneSarah -2.5/5
TCDroogsma - 2/5
03. Dana
Falconberry – Crooked River (from the album Leelanau)
MinneSarah:
This song is part nursery rhyme, part
grown women on acid pretending to be fairies in the woods. I'm
sure that the group's other offerings are not as completely
unbelievable. However, in this song, the mix of the singer's
baby octave, the harp, and the cutesy anthropomorphic lyrics about a
river doing it's adorable little thing are so over the top. I'm
actually incredulous that this is a serious offering, but I have
never professed to be in on the wood nymph movement. Watch how
I'll be saying I love this song after my initiation.
TCDroogsma:
I was trying to place the sound of this song and the first two acts that came to mind were The Magnetic Fields and Joanna Newsom. That's not a great way to start.
The more I listened to it the more it seemed skew former rather than latter. Still, there's just something a little too proper about this song. It's a little too meticulously done and it has that same stupid dueling-vocals-that-aren't-words thing that turned me against that Django Django song last week. Also, oddly, the more I listened to this song the more I thought it was about menstruation. I got problems, though. Scary problems.
Final Score:
MinneSarah -1/5 (Is there less than one?)
TCDroogsma - 1.5/5
Well there you
have it, everybody, a brief holiday-week's worth of songs listened
to, reviewed, and filed away forever. It will be a quick turnaround
for Songs Of The Week this time around, as we're moving the column to
its new home on Monday afternoon. Until then...
For the record, Newest Industry and its contributors are in no way affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio, The Current, or any of the artists above. We're just people with computers and a little too much free time.
For more of the always charming MinneSarah, she can be found on Twitter (@MinneSarah). Follow her if you enjoy discussions about whether or not 1994 was better than 1996.
For more TCDroogsma, he can also be found on Twitter (@TCDroogsma) or rambling along on his own blog Flatbasset. He also hosts our weekly Flatbasset Radio Podcast, which you should listen to if your favorite records came out in either 1994 or 1996.
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