A Tramp which is not a Tramp: Sharon Van Etten

This is another musical gift from 2012. Today, I was listening to Radio Horizonte's* ranking from the best 100 songs from this past year. I was hoping to listen to my favourite ones in the best places, like number 20 at least. However, they decided that "Serpents", one of the singles taken from the album I'm reviewing in this entry, deserved a number thirty-something. You know, the feelings of fans are always in favour of the loved musicians, and every "unfairness" - as we call it - must be punished by despising the source of it. I simply stopped listening to the program at the very end of the comment regarding Sharon's album and singles.

However, there were a couple of things one must take into account that were said at that moment: as "Tramp" was released on February from last year, there are normally few chances to incorporate such album on the year's recount, since it is too far away. Surprisingly enough, this album made it, and it is regarded as one of the most important albums from 2012 for institutions on the matter, such as NME or Pitchfork.

I remember having written her name on a paper after reading in Super 45*'s magazine that she was one of the big things of the year. That was maybe July or August. I checked "Tramp" out, and was immediately caught by it. And I started, you know, suffering. This is an album that hurts. As the other albums already reviewed here, it's also very feminine. This is all about broken relationships, bad decisions, frailty. However, the songs in "Tramps" are quite different from the ones you can hear on her previous albums - "Epic" and "Because I Was In Love" - because there is a little hope of recovering from wounds soon, as soon as this pains stops, somehow. Listening to this album does not help to restore your faith in humanity - for boys or girls - but it is an enjoyable, sublime pain, if you will.

The reasearch made around this album is completely related to what you may feel listening to the bunch of songs "Tramp" unveils. Sharon is concerned with broken relationships. So, each one of her albums is related to the process of forgetting and forgiving, or not forgiving at all. However, this last attempt is a more complete one: here we listen to a stronger woman, with no fear of shouting her despair, letting go of all her bad memories. The album is plenty of remarkable, strong and simple verses which reflect precisely that: the pain of trying to forget bad love.

In the meantime of forgetting, Sharon met a group of nice, talented men to accompany the recording of the songs. So, you can meet throughout the album Zach Condon from Beirut, Jenn Wasner from Wye Oak, Matt Barrick from The Walkmen, Thomas Bartlett a.k.a. Doveman, and Aaron Dessner from The National. So, each one contributed with their own insights in music, and their particular styles, giving birth to amazing moments. Therefore, the album does not sound strictly folk, but filled with different forces, sounds and movement. Someone also commented on the fact that the artwork presents a picture of Sharon's face, which reveals the degree of confidence she's reached as a woman and as an artist.

The amazing moments on the album start from the moment you press play and encounter the powerful "Warsaw",  which is a strong introduction to what is to come. It follows the intimate "Give Out". And then, you are smacked in the head by "Serpents", you feel like falling apart and screaming because of the strong drums and phrases like You enjoy sucking on dreams / so I will fall asleep with someone other than you, which became my favourite break-up phrase. Then, things calm down when you listen to "Kevin's" and "Leonard", both intimate and folkish. "In Line", the one that follows, invites you to stay in bed and cry a bit, because of its apparent slowness that becomes despair in the end. "All I Can" is closer to confession, but "We Are Fine" - Mr Condon's collaboration - is the asking for safety when one feels unprotected and cold. And we get to "Magic Chords", which is impossible not to relate right away to the video, but you got to watch it. The catchy phrase You got to lose, you got to lose, you got to lose sometime reminds you how lonely you might be because of your mistakes. You may feel stumbling and staring at what you fear. We slow down a bit with "Ask", "I'm Wrong" and "Joke or A Lie", filled with confessions and reflections. Somehow, the whole of the album ends up being too short, and certainly you want much more of it. The landing from our memories to the ground ends up being so boring when you've been too busy in introspection, remembering the person who hurt you, seeing him/her in front of you, and blaming him/her in your head. However, after listening to "Joke Or A Lie", maybe you can shed a tear and say Call it a joke or a lie / put a coat on / and believe me I tried. And feel in peace, at last, at the end of the album.

At least, up to listening to the album again.



*Note: Radio Horizonte and Super 45 are both Chilean media. 

A Bat for this Haunted Man

This comes as no surprise for some. Bat for Lashes has been on the spot since the realease of her third album "The Haunted Man", a corollary for her previous works: "Two Suns", and her debut album "Fur and Gold". Personally, I had been waiting for this album so much this year, since I'm a big fan of this British musician. I had fallen in love with her since I first listened "What's A Girl To Do" - nothing special, really - and she's always been on my personal favourites of all times. And the wait, from the perspective of a hungry fan, had been long until, at last, I could listen to this album.

And, it just blew my mind. 

The provocative artwork is a premise for what the album sounds like. The picture was taken by Ryan McGinley, and reveals the nakedness of Miss Khan carrying a man on her shoulders, which represents, according to her, women who end up carrying all the problems, nightmares and torments of the men they love. She also told in a couple of interviews that for this picture she wanted to appear as natural as possible, so she didn't shave her legs or dyed her moustache. Just like that. She also explained for Pitchfork the funny feeling of sensing the model's "willy" while the picture was being taken.

For me, the album is as straight-forward as the picture on the cover. It's all about woman, unrequited love, the sacrifices one needs to undertake in order to protect the one we love. What is behind each song, is, according to what I read from a beautiful interview that appeared on Pitchfork - look it up, it's just beautiful - the sum of a hard process that started from Natasha's split-up from his boyfriend, a very long relationship and a guy she was very attached to for long. In trying to go on with her life, the musician found herself out of inspiration, and pretty lost. She told at one part of the interview that she happened to have the phone number of a friend of hers - Thom York - and that she finally decided to call him just in case, for a pece of advice useful in those troublesome moments. She called and asked him what he did in times when he didn't have any ideas for music. He told her to draw. And she followed that piece of advice, in addition to taking dance classes and joining meetings with a lot of musician in New York and such. At some point, she also felt she needed to retire to a place by the sea to find herself and her art, so she went to a place - forgive me, I don't remember the name - in England, which you can see in some of the introductory videos Bat uploaded before the album was released. 

And we finally get to hear "The Haunted Man". The album starts with a slap in the face: "Lilies" attracts the listener with spirals of fumes and magic. It is evanescent and evocative - the whole album is. Good start. Then it follows a single "All Your Gold", in which we hear the story of the women represented throughout the album: women left aside by men trapped in their problems and limitations. And women who are hurt and troubled by it (And for every sweet nothing you whisper / Why is goodbye my reply?). Then we get "Horses Of The Sun" and "Oh, Yeah", both powerful and stunning, mysterious, different in tone - "Oh, Yeah" is psychedelic and deep - but revealing the degree of experimentation Bat For Lashes wanted to display. And we get to "Laura", first single. The amazing - and amazingly simple - piano ballad co-written with Justin Parker, the one who co-wrote some of Lana del Rey's songs. While listening to it, the overwhelming voice of Miss Khan takes over everything, mind and soul, and tells the story of this woman isolated by fear and loneliness. And you want to be that Laura, because you can be noticed by such marvelous musicians who tells you that you're more than a superstar. Simply uplifting. We get to "Winter Fields" and "The Haunted Man", two of my favourites, which are also wonderful displays of Khan's artistry, you may feel surrounded by memories, by wonderful thoughts, by melancholy as well. They are strong, though. The same happens with "Marylin", which follows the line of these two songs, but with more contrasts between dark and light. The figure of Marylin Monroe is present here, according to Ms Khan. And we can see her in all her splendour through the song. Then you start to move your feet a bit with "A Wall", which seems nicer by its construction, but it has an exhortation to the haunted man going around the album: Cause where you see a wall, I see a door / Set up with no map and turn off your torch. And after an exhortation, an invitation comes: "Rest Your Head", which is calming but no less powerful that the other songs in the album. We are left flying upon the ocean, you can even touch the sea with your tip-toes. And we finally get to "Deep Sea Diver", in which we feel we plunge slowly in a sea of sounds. End of the trip. We feel in peace, but with many questions. 

This album is certainly different from its predecessors, there is less playfulness and cosmic concepts: Miss Kahn stopped concentrating on the moon and galaxies to examine men and women inside: that's why I feel this is the most honest work from her three albums. It is more straight-forward, clear, inviting. 

This is my album of the year, but I'm not the only one who say so. Check many lists dealing with "albums of the year" stuff, and you'll find it easily among the top ones. 

A brilliant critic, Rolando Soto Zúñiga (a.k.a @MPoindexter), has claimed that Bat For Lashes is the fair inheritor of Kate Bush's music. I'd say she's more than that: she's deconstructed her legacy to become the creator of something new and everlasting.

Dedicated to the mentioned critic, wonderful man haunted by music.

Jessie Ware and her devotion

I don't really remember how I got to know Jessie. I guess I had heard about her music sometime in the past, and in a rush I listened to onw of her songs, discarding the sound for some reason I can't remember. How stupid, I remember saying after listening to the entire album, "Devotion".

This is one of my fav albums from 2012, one that makes me shiver and remember everything I've gone through with my boyfriend, ex-lovers and fictional stories I invented in my head.

This album is absolutely delightful from beginning to end. And this is a powerful woman, too. Her voice, sometimes fragile, sometimes a voice that stands for what she believes, is the center of each song. I particularly like one of the singles, "Wildest Moments", which is simply a cry in the city. Maybe in our wildest moments, we can be the greatest, we can be the greatest. Maybe in our wildest moments... we can be the worst of all. There are also some sexy tunes that Ware fills with her outstanding voice, like "110%", which has R&B colors and it's intimate and warm, but innocent at the same time. The album closes with "Taking In Water", deep and nostalgic, and "Something Inside", which makes us want to whisper in our boyfriend's ears Offer me something inside, a place to go, a place to hide.

And this is the part where this gets professional. The Pitchfork review says: 

"Her voice is a marvel throughout, often gaining power by holding back or briefly teasing its scope while staying faithful to melody over melisma. Her words are in tune with this refinement as they chronicle the in-betweenness of love, dismissing easy pleasures for feelings that are more hard-won, confusing, and frightening." 

I had to look up in a dictionary for a couple of these words. No, actually I just went for "melisma" (can't help it, after all I'm an English literature graduate). And this is Merriam Webster:

Definition of MELISMA

1

: a group of notes or tones sung on one syllable in plainsong

2

: melodic embellishment

So, I agree. "Devotion" is full of melismas and stuff I don't know. I only know that Ware sounds beautiful, bewitching and incredibly feminine. I just love this woman. She's incredibly classy in her videos. She reminds some of Sade, but I'm not sure. I don't like labelling people according to their looks. Jessie's just unique.