Monkey with a Typewriter
"Look at me. I worked my way up from nothing into a state of extreme
poverty."
- Groucho Marx
Sunday, October 30, 2005
We Will Become Like Birds by Erin McKeown
I love discovering amazing new artists by accident. I often find myself wandering in Amoeba music, near the used CDs, looking at the offerings and trying to decide, based on cover art, if a CD might be worth listening to. There was something about Erin McKeown's Grand that caught my eye. Maybe it was the soft focus, the odd, 1960s look of the cover, or the fact that she looks like a nice enough person. I just know when a CD intrigues me at Amoeba, it's time to take it over the the listening station and see what it's all about. What it was about was me trying to track down all of McKeown's other recordings after finishing Grand.
McKeown is an amazing artist, an accomplished musician, and her albums are, dare I say it, a smorgasbord of sound. That's right, her songs are so good that I can write things like the previous sentence proudly. McKeown is able to shift styles and tempos, her voice smooth, and her melodies and hooks are instantly engaging. She's commonly labeled as a folk artist, but I only think this is because she writes her own stuff and is so eclectic with her sound that people can't put a proper label on her. She's too good to be called "pop", although her songs are better than most top 40 offerings (which isn't saying much, I realize). But she's also not quirky enough to be alt.rock, not mopey enough to be emo, not angry enough to be Avril... essentially, she is like musical mercury. From the hopeful strains of the opening track, "aspera", to the haunting love ballad "float", We Will Become Like Birds is essential music.
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posted by Michael : 6:31 PM
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