Fingertips

“North Adams” – Gabriel Kahane

In another, better world, sort of like ours but also sort of not, pop songs would frequently sound like this: musical, playful, smart, tuneful, and interesting from beginning to end. Gabriel Kahane is one of a coterie of composer/performers out there–typically (in the U.S.) in New York City–blurring the lines between art and commerce, “high” and “low” art, rock and classical and jazz. He writes, he sings, he orchestrates; he performs with indie rockers and conservatory graduates and opera singers. The music defies facile labeling, but remains personable and easy to listen to, even as it is far richer musically than the unfettered marketplace ever spits up to us on its own.

Take this snazzy, blazingly intelligent song. There are horns, there are strings, there’s piano, there are vocals, tumbling together in continually unexpected ways. It’s a road song at heart, and the music has a back-road velocity to it. Early, the strings veer towards traditional chamber music; later, they deconstruct almost bebop-ishly. The horns, meanwhile, start with a hint of baroque but finish with a Latin flair. There are unusual meter shifts to keep our ears open but then also a great hook of a highway-cruising 4/4 chorus. Come to think of it, this is also music that puts a smile on your face, as great music often can for mysterious reasons.

Known in certain hipster circles for an eight-movement cycle of art songs he wrote using classified ads from Craigslist, verbatim, as lyrics (you can stream them on his home page), Kahane will be releasing his self-titled debut CD in September on his own Wasted Storefront label. MP3 via the artist.

“Poison My Cup” – Shannon McArdle

Creating a world of hurt and yearning out of a repetitive two-chord riff isn’t probably the easiest thing to do, but Shannon McArdle appears to have a lot of hurt to spare. “Poison My Cup” not only succeeds, but when it ends, I’m not ready. The evocative vocals, sounding like a prettier-voiced Liz Phair; the strong yet insouciant bass line; the oddly uncelebratory tambourine; the steady, intermittently forceful drumbeat—together they create a brisk, hypnotic dirge of a song, complete with mournful wailing at just the right moments. I could listen to this just about all day.

The backstory of the hurt: McArdle joined the band the Mendoza Line in 2000, and married bandmate Timothy Bracy in 2005. Both the band and the couple both broke up within the last year; the mini-album 30 Year Low, released last August, was a searing document of the divorce.

“Poison My Cup” suggests that McArdle is still processing the painful events of the past year or so, as does the title of the album on which you’ll find the song (Summer of the Whore), which is scheduled for release next month on Bar/None Records. MP3 via Bar/None.

“Good Fight Fighting” – the Very Most

This breezy slice of summery indie pop might’ve glided by my ears without quite sticking were it not for the subtle but significant fork in the road the song takes during its final third: at 1:47, the music modulates, the melody turns inside out, and the lead vocal is hijacked by the female backup vocalist, Rachel Jensen. Rachel is the sister of Jeremy Jensen, the Very Most’s front man, and she used to be in the band herself before she left Boise. The Very Most is based in Boise, a fact the band itself finds a bit unlikely, so imagine how the rest of us feel. (Rachel moved to the decidedly more indie-rock-like town of Portland, Oregon, where she now can be found in the band the Parenthetical Girls.)

But I digress. The point is that Rachel, taking over at 1:47, not only holds her own, but converts the entire song into a winner, especially in retrospect. Try it for yourself: once you see where the song ends up, you’ll enjoy the opening half all the more. (Don’t miss the way Rachel’s melody veers from the previous melody of the verse, and be sure to note the whistling that accompanies her: that’s the original melody.) All this is to take nothing whatever away from the three regulars in the band (who create just the right jingly ambiance), and most of all Jeremy Jensen, who is a delightful singer in his own right, spending time here demonstrating how much alike Brian Wilson and Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian) sound after all. And it is J. Jensen’s inventive pop sensibility that presides over the whole, increasingly wonderful concoction: on top of all the nicely conceived production touches (the album claims to feature some 33 different instruments/sound sources), it was Jeremy, I assume, who knew enough to have Rachel step in exactly when and how she did in the first place.

“Good Fight Fighting” is a song off the band’s second CD, Congratulations Forever, which was self-released in April. MP3 courtesy of the band.