Fingertips

“Fever” – Trentalange
     More minor-key moodiness, but quite the different aura this time; with twiddling synths, a noir-ish surf guitar line, and an ominous dance beat, “Fever” sounds like the soundtrack to a spy movie starring the Bee Gees, with Annie Lennox singing lead. Okay not exactly, but that’ll get your mind working in the right direction.
     Trentalange is Barbara Trentalange, former lead singer for the Seattle-based quintet Spyglass, and last heard around these parts in August 2006, when her first solo CD was released. Beyond the immediately successful mood established here, “Fever” works particularly well because the chorus delivers a payoff on the verse’s setup. Although nothing wildly different is happening in the chorus–the general mood and tempo remain the same–two particular attributes win me over. First, the vocals open up. While Trentalange sings with a smoky (and doubletracked, and maybe phased?) restraint in the verse, she gives herself more emotive freedom in the chorus, singing without obvious effects, and layering on the harmonies with just the right amount of drama (be sure to check out those Lennox-like howls she hides in the background). The other winning point in the chorus: the unresolved melody line at the end. And okay I’m kind of a sucker for unresolved melody lines, but even more so when they come in an unexpected context such as this upbeat, loungey rave-up (the song in fact seems to be taking place on a dance floor). That we are then led into a particularly noodly synthesizer line makes it sound like she’s winking at us, telling us that things after all aren’t exactly what they seem.
     “Fever” is the lead track on the forthcoming Trentalange album, Awakening, Level One, scheduled for release next month on Coco Tauro Records, which appears to be her own label.

In place of the usual three-song “This Week’s Finds,” I am this week unveiling the list of Fingertips Favorites for 2008–my favorite free and legal MP3s of the year. Actually, there are two lists–a top 10, and then another 10. They’re kind of in order but it’s also kind of pointless to try to put them in order. All are really good songs. Maybe you missed some of these along the way, so here’s a chance to listen and download once again. (The MP3 is linked via the song title; the “more” link next to each song will take you to the original TWF review.)

If you’d like to listen to these songs in a player, or learn a little more about these lists, visit the official Fingertips Favorites page.

Happy new year one and all. See you in ’09.

TOP 10 FAVORITE FREE AND LEGAL MP3s, 2008

“Albert” – Ed Laurie  [more]
“Beyond the Door” – 13ghosts  [more]
“Me and Armini” – Emiliana Torrini [more]
“Cherry Tulips” – Headlights  [more]
“I Lost the Monkey” – The Wedding Present  [more]
“The Crook of My Good Arm” – Pale Young Gentlemen  [more]
“Some Are Lakes” – Land of Talk  [more]
“Neal Cassady” – The Weather Underground  [more]
“Cat Swallow” – The Royal Bangs  [more]
“Scandinavian Warfare” – Champagne Riot  [more]

Honorary Top 10: “My Mistakes Were Made For You” – The Last Shadow Puppets (no longer available) [more]

10 MORE FAVORITE FREE AND LEGAL MP3s, 2008

“Animé Eyes” – The Awkward Stage  [more]
“HYPNTZ” – Dan Black  [more]
“A Little Tradition” – Novillero  [more]
“Connjur” – School of Seven Bells  [more]
“Torn Foam Blue Couch” – Grand Archives  [more]
“Yer Motion” – Reeve Oliver  [more]
“Sure Enough” – Andrea Desveaux  [more]
“Rosa” – Samuel Marcus  [more]
“Right Away” – Pattern Is Movement  [more]
“Un Día” – Juana Molina  [more]

“Headin’ Inside” – Surf City

Fingertips doesn’t much traffic in genres and here’s a great example of why: if asked, I would not claim surf rock as a particular favorite, or garage rock, or anything that sounds lo-fi or DIY-ish. “Headin’ Inside” is pretty much a blend of all three, and this–go figure–I pretty much love. So, look: it’s not about the genre, people. It’s about the music. If “melodic, spirited, intelligent pop” were a genre, then maybe I’d sign up as a fan.

Meantime, “Headin’ Inside”: this one announces “pay attention!” to me in three distinct places. First: after that itchy, half surf-rock/half jangle-rock intro keeps you engaged but on hold, wondering where it’s all going, we get, at 0:26, the unforeseen entrance of some sort of flute- or pipe-like instrument playing the melodic refrain; the musical juxtaposition is brilliant in a way words cannot describe. Second: when lead singer Davin Stoddard shouts “one, two, three, four!” for the second time, at 1:04, it leads into a wordless vocal section rather than straight back into a verse; even better, the “oh-oh-ohs” here are sung at half-speed to the verse’s melody, and partially syncopated off the beat as well. That’s just plain great. But again, I can’t really describe why. Third: the chorus, when Stoddard sings, “I’m headin’ inside/Yeah I’m headin’ outside for a while.” Which is it? How can it be both? Am I hearing things? Answers are besides the point when a song has this much infectious momentum. Fourth: when the lyric “What’s the matter now?” is repeated (1:32). No other lyrical line is repeated like that, as far as I can tell. Need I bother to add that this moment too is indescribably delightful?

Surf City is a quartet from Auckland that used to be called Kill Surf City (after a Jesus and Mary Chain song) but found that a band in the U.K. had beaten them to the name. “Headin’ Inside” is the lead track from the group’s self-titled debut EP, released last month on the German label, Morr Music, which is typically an electronica label (see last week’s review of B. Fleischmann, below). But maybe they don’t let genre get in their way, either.

“In Your Eyes” – Elizabeth Willis
     When a song starts with this much immediate authority, I wonder why all songs don’t do this. Isn’t it simple?: a forceful beat, some piano vamping with nice chords changes, and a bit of tempestuous violin (and/or viola) playing. Nothing to it. Well, okay, maybe there’s a bit of something to it–especially the violin and/or viola playing. Turns out Willis is a former child prodigy in both violin and piano. Classically (and relentlessly) trained from the age of four. Maybe this isn’t so simple after all.
     Pay attention to how, right away, there’s more action during the third and fourth beats of the four-beat measures than you’ll hear during the first two. That lends an appealing off-kilterness to the standard 4/4 beat, and foreshadows the underlying structure of the song, in which the main melodies in both the verse and the chorus begin between the second and third beats. I haven’t done any formal surveys but I would say this is relatively unusual; if a pop song’s melody does not start directly on the first beat, it will usually start either between the first and second or on the second. The way the song keeps driving forward, with the melody lagging behind but forging on, lends an ineffable sort of poignancy and persistence to the sound of it. The melody also does interesting things like utilize semitones–half intervals between notes–in a sophisticated way, which I don’t think I can get more specific about it, but it has to do with the first melody that goes with the words “It was in your eyes.” And on top of everything, do not miss her fierce string playing and oh yeah, her voice–a dusky alto with a hint of vibrato–is pretty cool too.
     “In Your Eyes” is a song from her self-titled debut CD, released in September, digitally, on Little Blackbird Records.

“Wild One” – Those Darlins
     Take the Appalachian back-porch music of the Carter family and paste a Lily Allen-style 21st-century 20-something’s attitude on top of it and here we are. This is not complicated stuff, but it’s utterly charming, somehow. To begin with, there’s something wonderful in the air when you’re hearing three women, employing a hillbilly melody, accompanied by retro-sounding rhythm and lead guitars (plus, a ukulele in the mix), singing words like this: “If you can’t handle crazy/Go ahead and leave/If you don’t want a wild one/Quit hangin’ round with me.” It’s hard enough to combine the contemporary and the traditional in a way that respects both; it’s particularly hard to do so and come up with something fun. (Usually you end up with “earnest” in such instances.) (Not that there’s anything wrong with earnest, but fun is, well, more fun.)
     Based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Those Darlins are three women who go by the names Nikki Darlin, Jessi Darlin, and Kelley Darlin, which also tells me that their historical respect extends likewise, and unexpectedly, onto the streets of downtown Manhattan in the mid-1970s, where a quartet of unrelated, black-leather-clad young men adopted the same last name and went on quite a tear themselves. (And what the heck: CBGB did, after all, stand for Country, Bluegrass, and Blues; I kid you not.) Maybe it’s their sense of history, or maybe it’s their sense of humor, or maybe it’s just their plain old sense, but I’m getting a deeper and stronger vibe out of this trio than I get from most of the other brassy 20-somethings who’ve flung themselves onto the scene over the last year or two. Showing an awareness of a wide world beyond the tips of their own noses (or the touch screens of their iPhones) is way more enticing than being snarky and fashionable. At least it is here.
     “Wild One” is the title track to the group’s first release, a three-song EP, which came out this fall on Oh Wow Dang Records, which I’m pretty sure is the band’s own label (information is scanty), but if not, with a name like that, it should be. Thanks to the mighty Largehearted Boy for the lead.

“In the New Year” – the Walkmen
     So with the musical pickings slimming down with year’s end, I’m starting a new Fingertips tradition: revisiting the “Almost Bin” in December, to see what songs might be wanting and needing another chance. The Almost Bin, you see, is the file into which I deposit all songs I’ve considered seriously for a “This Week’s Finds” slot, but end up not featuring for who knows what reason. These things just sort of are. But this is such a non-science, there could well be a song or two in there that, if reconsidered, might sound, now, like a “This Week’s Finds” entry for sure.
     “In the New Year” was always really really close to getting the nod. Maybe in the back of my head I just figured it would be a better song to hear in December. There’s something idiosyncratic at work here, to be sure–the song lopes along in a sort of undefinable tempo; something seems coiled up, but the intensity leaks out in aspects other than speed. A lot of the vehemence is worked out through singer Hamilton Leithauser’s unrestrained capacity in his upper register–he’s not screaming or shreiking, but he is surely letting loose, expressing his torn-up feelings indirectly, via roiling combination of glad tidings (“It’s going to be a good year”) and troubled hints (“It’s all over anyhow”). Without a fully graspable structure–the song doesn’t seem to have verses or chorus as much as drum-free sections, filled with ringing guitars, and drumming sections, the latter dominated by that chiming organ riff–very new yearsy it is, somehow, yes?–which cycles through again and again, generating a driving surge of appeal as the song unfolds in its potent but unhurried way.
     The Walkmen are a NYC-based quintet that has been together since 2000. “In the New Year” is a song from the group’s You and Me CD, their fifth full-length album, which was released on Gigantic Records in August. They were previously featured on Fingertips in July 2004.

“White Shade” – Lukestar

Be aware, to begin with, that this is a man singing. I will quickly admit that I do not usually warm to a male voice that sounds this much like a female voice, but this has only to do with the fact that in my experience, singers with unusual voices tend to over-rely on the basic aural gimmick and therefore under-deliver on the song. Hell, I could listen to a male voice that sounds like a female hyena if the song is good enough.

In “White Shade,” lead man Truls Heggero, of the Oslo-based quartet Lukestar, has a worthy piece of material to work with, featuring first and foremost that European pop band tendency to sneak up a bit on the hook, and to manage in general to make a three-minute song seem expansive and interesting. The song has three distinctive sections: the upbeat verse, with Heggero’s voice in such a high range that he can make that five-interval downward leap and still sound like a soprano on the lower note; the meandering bridge, which arrives unexpectedly after a forceful instrumental interlude, and has the air of some hidden section of a lost prog-rock classic (but much shorter!), complete with organ flourishes; and then, wow, a swift and appealing chorus, with an assured, wide-ranging melody that brings Heggero so much further down in his range that a-ha, it’s clearly a man singing after all. The song goes through the three sections again but with an alteration at the end of the verse, just to see if you’re paying attention (around 1:42); when the chorus comes back it seems both more appealing and shorter than ever–wait! sing that again! you want to say. Good news–he does, and then, without fuss, the song is over.

“White Shade” is a song from Lake Toba, Lukestar’s second CD, which came out in Norway early this year, and was released in the U.S. last month on Flameshovel Records. Lake Toba, I feel compelled to inform you, is the largest volcanic lake in the world (it’s on the Indonesian island of Sumatra); an enormous eruption there 75,000 years ago changed the Earth’s climate and apparently wiped out a lot of the human population on earth at the time. Just to keep things in perspective.