The Singer/Songwriter Thread
 

Note: Ok so this is another one of my pitiful threads, but I’ve had this one written, so might as well post it.

Regina Spektor

http://www.kanelsaft.com/wp/images/regina2.jpg

The best. Ever. Period. I honestly don’t see how any human being can dislike Regina Spektor. If you can think of a reason, please let me know.
Pretty strong endorsement, yes. First of all, she is a NY native (but born in Moscow…she’s a ‘Russian Jew’) that comes from a musical family. You can definitely sense the NY accent. She is an exceptionally talented pianist with a very unique style- it’s hard to explain…both her voice and the notes go through unconventional transitions. It’s not quite Tori Amos…but close. She likes to use quick/short notes, and sometimes the piano and vocals don’t seem to flow together at least in any traditional sense. But, she also has the ability to do the exact opposite and follow “conventional” styles…at least as much as possible.

Her voice is a story on its own. Her pitch has a pretty wide range…and then she starts doing some things that I cannot even explain. She does an amazing job of stressing and accentuating certain words or simply certain syllables. She also occasionally throws in some Russian or French whenever she gets a chance.

The lyrics are definitely unorthodox…more narrative rather than autobiographical. It’s almost like she is reciting short poems. At times, she makes literary references that I have to scratch my head to. Instead of songs, she often thinks of characters and creates a cinema piece about them. She’s definitely one of the more clever songwriters I have encountered.

So where do YOU start? The album “Songs” is a good start. They call it anti-folk…because it literally is just that…a lot of unexpected twists and turns and very untraditional. Soviet Kitsch is another great album, which is probably the closest she’s ever been to traditional. Both do have something in common…the word ‘amazing’ can be attached to either of them. :D

Favorite Songs: Oedipus, Lacrimosa, Us, Poor Little Rich Boy, Consequence of Sounds, and Ode To Divorce.


http://www.myspace.com/reginaspektor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqKvB...gina%20Spektor (great video…better than reading the crap I just wrote. Just click and enjoy!)
http://www.reginaspektor.com/

**** limewire, soulseek, and torrents. Your mp3 stop is here:
http://www.reginaspektor.net/
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/gretalizabeth/
http://www.ragette.org/Reginology.htm

She is getting a lot of hype on myspace right now.
I'm going to check it right....now.

And, as if all of this were planned, her new album "Begin To Hope" was released this past Tuesday.

http://www.avclub.com/content/files/...pe.article.jpg

Review: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=glance&n=5174

I've heard five songs from it: Fidelity, Samson, On The Radio, 20 Years of Snow, and Better.

So far, I agree with the first reviewer...it is once again a lot more traditional and structured than her earlier albums. But, I'll comment more once I get the album.

Brendan Benson - http://www.brendanbenson.com/

http://www.brendanbenson.com/gallery/030605_2.jpg


A bit more 'rock' than your typical singer/songwriter with just an acoustic guitar, but still very much worth checking out. Two albums out are Lapalco (Folk Singer is the best song) and The Alternative To Love (Spit It Out is the best single) .

Seen him twice, once at glasto and once locally where he headlined. Very enoyable concert and highly recommended.

His recent project is with Jack White in The Raconteurs. They've been jamming for a few years and finally put out the recent album that has been doing very well.


You can listen to songs from The Alternative to love here - http://www.brendanbenson.com/news.php

Seconded

Lapulco was on my CD player for WEEKS when it came out

Urban... let's make a deal... you change your avatar and I'll get one... it's too distracting! LOL!

This one stays until I can get one of David Beckham lifting the world cup ;)

afriad this is as close as you are gonna get :(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3...ecks_pa300.jpg

My turn.....

http://www22.ocn.ne.jp/~ode2snug/Res.../ed_index1.jpg

OK so he looks like something out of planet of the apes but he really is a great talent.His Debut album Here Be Monsters is a gorgeous album that narrowly missed a place in the Urban 100. It`s a great combination of folk , rock , jazz & lounge style.His voice kind of sounds like to me a more restrained Bryan Ferry.He`s released a couple more albums since then although to be honest they`re a little bit patchy. But there are a couple of gems on each of them.

In fact it`s become a bit of a joke really as to when he`ll get up off his ass & make the album he`s been promising for years since his debut.He released his 5th album 'The Beautiful Lie' a couple of weeks ago (Although it`s actually his 4th , for some reason everybody seems to be counting his Maplewood E.P. as an album , damn lazy music journalists).
Common concensus to his new album is saying 'Finally he`s done it' but i`ve not heard it myself yet. I`ll leave you with a link to his webpage

www.edharcourt.com

And his biography from Allmusic.com...

This former chef and member of indie-adolescents Snug has extended the range of ingredients, progressed from bass guitar, and long since raided the musical larder (playing piano/keyboards, guitar, banjo, drums, and kitchen sink). At the age of 23, it was alleged he had a backlog of 300-plus songs. They're not all searingly original, but this sort of youthful industry should be warmly encouraged. Harcourt is an obvious disciple of Tom Waits, and the marriage of his dreamland Americana and England's South Coast is sometimes an awkward alliance. Other self-confessed influences include comatose jazzer Chet Baker, incendiary blues showman Screamin' Jay Hawkins -- and, later, Perry Farrell, the Beasties, Gravediggaz, and At the Drive In. With a widening palette and application that sometimes sees him write two or three songs in a day, his career should be an interesting one. Maplewood sounds like a work in progress, indeed Heavenly Records put out the original four-track recordings straight from the rural idyll of his grandma's Sussex house. Here Be Monsters (2002) was recorded in a studio proper, some of the earlier songs are thickened and enriched, and the earlier promise is realized. Some wag has called Harcourt the Fortnum and Mason's version of Badly Drawn Boy, but he's not necessarily upmarket, more of a supermarket perhaps. He should rely on his own fertile soil, mulch his influences more thoroughly, and become an organic shop of real character, just like Damien Gough himself. His live performances are populated by an army of soft toys, with Kermit clinging onto the microphone sound promisingly dotty, but tales of piano trashing seem a bit egotistical and passé. This sort of caper can work with a gun-shaped guitar, but it does seem a bit harsh battering a defenseless piece of mahogany with imperfect ivory teeth. A piano is essentially a sedate and introverted piece of furniture, with hidden harmonic depths. This would be a step too far for Jerry Lee Lewis himself. These are minor quibbles however, Harcourt has youth and bags of talent on his side. In 2003, Harcourt returned with the stripped down sophomore effort From Every Sphere. That year he also toured with both Wilco and R.E.M., and by 2004 had released his third studio album Strangers.

Edit: Link for a torrent of the advance copy of the new album..

http://www.bitenova.nl/download.php?...169423588f987e

Brendan Benson is very good

Just checked out both Brendan Benson and Ed Harcourt...both are actually upbeat. For whatever reason, I was expecting something gloomy and dark...Both are very catchy though.

Any thoughts on Regina, anyone?

^very good songwriter.
Brendan Benson is my favorite out of the 3.

Ok, had this one written.

Katie Melua

http://www.bebal.de/images/KatieMelua.jpg

…is a British artist with very memorable and melodic tunes. Her sound is very radio-friendly, but since I am completely unaware of that world, I couldn’t tell you how much exposure she has gotten.

Her debut album “Call Off The Search” has to have earned some success in the U.K. She made an appearance at the Brit Awards along with Jamie Cullum to perform a cover of The Cure’s “Love Cats.” The song and video is widely available on the internet. They actually seem like a workable pair…would kind of be interesting to see them do more work together down the road. It’s also not the only Cure song she has covered. “Just Like Heaven” is featured on the debut album, and unlike other Cure covers, she doesn’t slaughter it. Well, she kept it nice and simple, so it was bound to work out.

She has a very cute, innocent voice…sounds younger than she actually is (she is only 21 after all, but her voice alone can probably pass for being younger). The first single was “The Closest Thing To Crazy”…it’s a great mellow song. But, the song that I first heard and got me hooked was “Crawling Up A Hill.” It’s definitely her best song, because it has a soul/blues-like tempo that she almost-surprisingly pulls off well.

Her next album Piece By Piece was released totally out of my radar in the fall of last year. I didn’t discover it until maybe a few weeks ago, and I instantly liked the single “Nine Million Bicycles,” which unfortunately was not even written by her, but received some bizarre criticism. In the song, she sings "We are 12 billion light-years from the edge. That's a guess — no-one can ever say it's true.” Some cosmologist took strong offense to that line and called her out on it.

I question how much creative control she had on both her albums, but whoever is pulling the strings did a fine job. They just need to keep up with all the cosmology facts, I guess.

Favorite Songs: Crawling Up A Hill, Nine Million Bicycles, Blame It On The Moon, My Aphrodisiac Is You, & The Closest Thing To Crazy.

http://www.katiemelua.com/
http://www.myspace.com/katiemelua
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bglK...=Katie%20Melua (Nine Million Bicycles)

Meh, might as well post the last one I have written up so far.

Martha Wainwright

http://www.lonereviewer.de/Konzertbe...inwright_3.jpg

…is a Canadian artist from a notorious musical family (daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and sister of Rufus Wainwright). If you’re familiar with the family, then you can sense a little bit of their respective flavors in Martha’s voice. But still, she brings her own unique style. And, if you have heard her sing with Rufus, they actually find a way to make it work.

One of her greatest abilities is to sound flawless live. It’s as if you are listening to her at home (Rufus has this same quality). I think the real question here is…would she have been discovered if it wasn’t for the family connection? Mmm, who knows. But, no one can question the talent. She has a great, seductive voice with a wide vocal range. It’s almost cute, but it’s almost too powerful to say that it is. She can be very passionate and raw in delivery, like in “Bloody Mother ****ing *******,” her most recognizable song. The song has been mistakenly thought of to be about her father, but actually, it is about a conversation with her father (he didn’t think Martha had what it takes to make it big), maybe perhaps about herself. Even Martha claims, "I'm not sure who this song's about." The debut self-titled is filled with NOTHING BUT soulful and beautiful melodies…you quickly forget the relation to her prestigious family. But for the record…if you ask me, what Rufus doesn’t execute, she does. And what Rufus does well, she does even better.

Favorite Tracks: Factory, Far Away, Bloody Mother ****ing *******, When The Day Is Short, and Ball & Chain.

http://www.marthawainwright.com/
http://www.myspace.com/marthawainwright
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecuIs...a%20wainwright (Who the **** is this Jools Holland guy? He has a lot of good guests, but my god, he seems like the biggest tool on the planet).