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“Life Before Aesthetics” – Denison Witmer
     Fleet-footed and amiable singer/songwriter pop with a dreamy ’70s patina. It’s a mellow toe-tapper–half Jackson Browne, half Sufjan Stevens–but it manages to vibrate with something extra that, to me, separates it from the kind of song that may come to mind when you think “mellow toe-tapper.” And what, precisely, is that something extra? Well. Let’s see. Hmm. He says “modern furniture” in the first line, but that’s probably not it.
     Okay, here’s one thing: check out how the verse has two interrelated but distinct melodies. You can hear the first one beginning at 0:14, the second one at 0:29. The first part is a downward-trending melody, the second part leans upward, with two effects. First, Witmer gets to show us his impressive vocal range; singing sweetly and easily, he takes us from a low D to a high G without breaking a sweat. Second, this straightforward song now feels much more interesting and substantive. Witmer doesn’t provide us with a 16-measure melody–a rare animal indeed in the indie rock world–but he does offer two back-to-back, repeated eight-measure melodies, which is a deft way of adding complexity without overtaxing either the listener or the songwriter. And then the chorus delivers simplicity itself: a slower-moving resolving melody that consists primarily of two notes, describing harmony’s most basic interval, the third. The instrumental accompaniment maintains the faster rhythm of the verse, with the added texture of an organ playing a new countermelody. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the song would not have succeeded as well as it does without that organ.
     Denison Witmer, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has been recording since 1995. “Life Before Aesthetics” is a song from his new CD, Carry the Weight, his eighth full-length studio album, released earlier this month by the Militia Group. MP3 courtesy of Insound.

The latest Fingertips Contest is giving away a Dar Williams “prize pack”–a CD of her new album, Promised Land, a DVD of her concert film Live at Bearsville Theater, and a poster of the Promised Land album art. Check the main Fingertips site for more details, including a Dar Williams widget and links to an MP3 and a video.

Become a fan, if you’re so inclined.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged about the Fingertips Top 10 that the entire chart, but for the number one song, is new (newcomers since the last blog update are marked with an asterisk). Check it out:

1. “Albert” – Ed Laurie
2. “Some Are Lakes” – Land of Talk*
3. “Me and Armini” – Emiliana Torrini*
4. “A Little Tradition” – Novillero*
5. “The Crook of My Good Arm” – Pale Young Gentlemen*
6. “Rosa” – Samuel Markus*
7. “Un Día” – Juana Molina*
8. “Morning Tide” – the Little Ones*
9. “HYPNTZ” – Dan Black*
10. “New Song” – Your 33 Black Angels*

“Rosa” and “New Song” are brand new this week. “Albert,” which entered at #1, has remained there. Juana Molina’s hypnotic “Un Día” is probably one of the more unusual Top 10 songs I’ve listed over the years, lacking anything like an obvious hook, although Dan Black’s unexpectedly poignant cover of a song by the Notorious B.I.G. is also an oddity, perhaps, in the Fingertips universe.

For those relatively new to Fingertips, note that the Top 10 list is my way of putting a little bit of extra attention on ten particularly wonderful songs at any given time. It’s important to remember, however, that Fingertips only features carefully filtered music to begin with, so you can’t go wrong with any of the MP3s featured here.

Songs remain in the Top 10 for a maximum of three months, before they are retired to the Retired Top 10 Songs page, of all places.

The Mighty Ship
Angela Desveaux
Thrill Jockey Records

Angela Desveaux has crafted as strong and appealing a singer/songwriter album as I’ve heard in quite a while. Like fellow Canadian Kathleen Edwards, Desveaux traffics in territory pioneered by Lucinda Williams–alt-country indie pop, or some such thing–and possesses, as Edwards does, both the vocal character and the songwriting chops to turn music ever in danger of veering into corn into a continually unfolding and pleasurable experience.

This is an album worthy of being an album, quite clearly constructed with an ear on the flow of the entire work. From the start, Desveaux throws us for a loop by opening the CD with the pensive, bittersweet “Other Side”–not the typical ear-candy-like opening track, and it shows me that she trusts her ability to engage our ear with atmosphere and strength of melodic purpose. Not that ear candy is Desveaux’s style, at all; the follow-up track, the TWF-featured “Sure Enough,” is upbeat and catchy, but sliced with subtle melancholy, while track three, “Hide From You,” a fuzzy-riffed rocker, at the same time displays a thoughtful, Beatlesque flair.

Even when she slows things down to a crawl, as in “Joining Another,” Desveaux keeps my interest through unwavering tunefulness and some classy instrumental work. The album hits full Lucinda mode with the tough, achey “Shape You,” then follows it with perhaps the album’s most ambitious composition, “Red Alert,” a taut shuffle with evocative strings and a Jonatha Brooke-like sense of melodic indignation. “For Design,” the album’s tough-skinned closer, sends me to the repeat button, ready to run through these 10 well-wrought songs all over again.  [buy via the Fingertips Store]

(See more Fingertips CD reviews on the Album Bin page of the main Fingertips site.)

As at least a temporary experiment, the Fingertips blog will now accept comments. Comments are moderated, so play nicely–diversity of opinion is welcome, but civility is required.

Win a copy of the new Live at Shea Stadium CD; deadline for entry is October 17. See original post for a video teaser, or go straight to the Contests page on the main Fingertips site for all the details.

Fingertips is giving away three copies of the about to be released CD, The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium. See the contest page on the main Fingertips site for details.

Here’s a video preview of the CD:

Further details here.

“A Little Tradition” – Novillero
     Smart and sharp, with a Britpop flair, complete with horn charts and marvelous lyrics. And I’m calling the lyrics marvelous based almost entirely on their sound, not their content (although from what I can understand, the content is impressive too). Not many bands work hard enough to get their words so crisply aligned with the music but these five guys from Winnipeg have an enviable knack for songcraft. Check out how precisely everything fits when Rod Slaughter sings “What’s wrong with a little tradition?”: it’s so comfortable it puts a smile on your face–or on my face, at any rate. (And phew, after last week’s Mean People’s convention in St. Paul, I can use all the smiles I can access.)
     Musically, the song takes a revved-up Motown beat and applies an early Elvis Costello-like sense of effortless melody and knowing restraint. Check out how the chorus gives us that bouncy up and down melody at the outset (0:41-0:45), retreats as if to set up another pass at the same melody (0:46-0:49), and then exactly when it “should” repeat (0:50) it doesn’t. This is the kind of thing that draws no attention to itself but adds depth and class to what you’re listening to.
     “A Little Tradition” is the title track to Novillero’s third full-length CD, which comes out this week on Mint Records. Novillero was previously featured on Fingertips in June ’05 for the truly wonderful song “Aptitude.”

Fingertips is giving away three copies of the excellent new Angela Desveaux CD, The Mighty Ship. See the contest page on the main Fingertips site for details.

Born in Quebec and raised on Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia), the Montreal-based Desveaux is another in a seemingly endless series of talented Canadian musicians that have graced the rock scene over the decades. She has been featured twice so far on Fingertips, most recently for the song “Sure Enough,” which, sure enough, comes from the CD you can now win.

Released this month on Thrill Jockey Records, The Mighty Ship is an assured and well-crafted album; Desveaux sings with a voice at once strong and delicate, and writes with an admirable attention to detail, both melodic and lyrical. For lack of a better label, you might group the CD in the alt-country genre, but only in the same way you might put Lucinda Williams or Kathleen Edwards in that same place. Whatever the tag, this is really good stuff. And remember that giveaways on Fingertips work differently than in other places online. I don’t give away things that I don’t think are worthwhile; I’m not here to be part of a mindless promotional campaign.

Further details here.