Ballad

Countdown To Christmas 2021: Jamie Cullum – ‘Christmas Never Gets Old’

December 23, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Pianoman At Christmas: Complete Edition’ (Released on 19th Nov, 2021) (via Island Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s almost time for you to pop down the shops to buy some Parsnips, Stuffing or whatever you need for the big day’s dinner, straight after reading the penultimate installment of my ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series on the blog, given that it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We’re delving fully into the spirit of Christmas today with a track from the Rochford-born Jazz singer Jamie Cullum who utilises a big backing band at his full tilt for ‘Christmas Never Gets Old’, An established artist, Cullum holds the title of having the best selling studio Jazz album with ‘Twentysomething’ in the UK, which he released in 2003. He’s also known for singles like a cover of Radiohead’s ‘High and Dry’, as well as original singles like ‘Everlasting Love’, ‘Get Your Way’ and ‘These Are The Days’ that have reached the Top 75 of the UK Singles Chart. Since 2010, Cullum has also presented a weekly Tuesday evening Jazz programme on BBC Radio 2. Last year, he got into the festive spirit of the Christmas season with his own Christmas-themed Jazz album, ‘The Pianoman At Christmas’, which featured the UK Top 65 single ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ as well as other covers, alongside a decent array of original Christmas tracks. Recorded in Abbey Road with his producer Greg Wells, the record peaked at #11 in the UK Albums Chart and saw 57 guest appearances from the likes of Sigrid, Dodie and Robbie Williams. A year later, he has just released ‘The Pianoman At Christmas: Complete Edition’ – a deluxe edition of the album with some new tracks and a very limited run of 180G heavyweight coloured vinyl in red and gold. According to Cullum, ‘Christmas Never Gets Old’, who expresses so in one of his original offerings, which you can find below.

Influenced by the likes of Billie Holiday and Chaka Khan, ‘The Pianoman At Christmas: Complete Edition’ features guest appearances from artists like the LA-based multi-instrumentalist Lady Blackbird and the experimental Londoner The Vernon Spring, while the Ivor Novello award-winning talent in the form of Cullum says, “I had a huge amount of fun creating part two of TPAC. Recorded live, all in the room together – it’s the party after the big show, with friends, drinks and some of the finest musicians on planet Earth”, in his promotional email. Starting off in cinematic flair with dramatic Trombone melodies, Cullum captures a Frank Sinatra-esque classical sound as he croons lyrics like “All the presents are wrapped and the stockings are hung/All the children relieved all the waiting is done” over the top of a big backing band sound, which is comprised of dramatic Jazz melodies created by a Saxophone in old-school Swing style, and he definitely captures the finger-clicking essence of artists like Perry Como and Booker T & The M.G.’s with the bright mixture of big Brass backdrops and dramatic percussion that compile a rich composition. Vocally, there’s an air of Joe Williams and Michael Bublé to his crooner voice and his mature delivery, with joyous lyrics like “The houses aglow/Now look up, mistletoe/Let’s get on, with the snow” that sail cheerfully over the top of the upbeat sound of the Brass section, and his voice seems youthful enough to reflect the very gleeful tone of the songwriting while pointing to some noticeably old-fashioned influences of the more classical music variety too. The lyrics are simple and straightforward, but they don’t tend to overstay their welcome, as Jamie Cullum does not allow the song to drag on for too long, and they should appeal to mainstream audiences fairly well. Overall, I felt this is a warm-hearted and enjoyable Christmas track that feels a little too basic for me at some points, but it is a nice homage to the full tilt backing band sounds of Nina Simone, Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald in the way that Cullum has co-produced it and given it a rich assortment of instrumentation to play to the strengths of this style, and so he manages to make the track feel modern enough for these times without the sound feeling too outdated at all, and it is great to see him making some original Christmas songs while delivering his great tidings of comfort and joy. While he may be seeking the royalties of the heights of Mariah Carey or Slade with it, it worked for me and I like how he looks to the past in order to fit the musicianship. It may have been as cheesy as a lump of melted Gorgonzola on top of your Jacob’s Cream Cracker this Christmas evening, it was also as warm and comfy as an old cardigan rounded off by a Santa hat.

Pictured: Jamie Cullum in a PR shot for an ‘The Inventory’ feature for Financial Times (2016) (Photo by Hester Lacey)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, and I hope that you have a merry christmas and a happy new year if you’re too busy to spare a moment with me over the next few days. If you can stay, however, you’re in for a treat along the same lines of the Charlie Brown Christmas special or South Park’s Mr. Hanky The Christmas Poo for one of the strangest novelty songs of Christmas past coming from an A.I. character created by Gorge Stone and portrayed by Matt Frewer in the 1980’s who used to be declared “the first computer generated television personality”.

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Today’s Track: Marissa Nadler – ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater’

December 20, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Marissa Nadler in a promo photoshoot for ‘For My Crimes’ (2018) (Photo via Sacred Bones Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to catch up on some great music from 2021 that may have skipped you by during the first time with yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you’ve been a regular follower of my site for a while, you may know that I love a bit of moody, bluesy and sometimes Folk-ish Americana, with artists such as Weyes Blood, Sharon Van Etten and Alexandra Savior being some of my favourites of this style, to name just a few. One of the genre’s most memorable offerings from the past year was ‘The Path Of The Clouds’, an album released in late October by the Boston-based and Washington-born singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler via Bella Union Records. She has managed to sustain a 20-year-plus career, and her latest record was her tenth mainline studio album. She typically swings for a Chamber Folk style of sound with elements of Gothic Rock and Dream-Pop mixed into the cauldron, but myself and a few online publications, such as Pitchfork and The Boston Globe, have each also noticed an underlying influence of Black Metal within her production too, an element of her mezzo-soprano vocals and dark instrumentation that sets her apart from other fine artists of the genre. Raised as Jewish, Nadler studied Painting at the Rhode Island School Of Design, where she learned artistic drawing techniques such as illustration, bookbinding, woodcarving and encaustic painting while singing at Open Mic Nights in the Providence area while she achieved a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree a year later, and the hard effort that she puts into the visual storytelling of her music is evident through her unique background in Art Education, later touring with Drone Metal bands like Earth and the American primitive guitarist Jack Rose. Like many others, the origins of ‘The Path Of The Clouds’ were established during the Covid-19 pandemic, where she spent her time of self-isolation by watching repeats of the True Crime documentary series ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ and began writing songs about, and inspired by, the subjects of the series through their perspective. Receiving a wealth of positive reviews throughout NME, UNCUT, Record Collector, MOJO and more, Nadler fulfilled her goal of immortalizing the stories of people who deserve to be told on the recent LP. She also enlisted guests like Mercury Rev’s Jesse Chandler and multi-instrumentalist Milky Burgess. Her longtime friend Mary Littlemore, who plays the Cosmic Harp, features on Nadler’s wistful song ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater’ below.

Accompanied by an official music video directed and edited by Jenni Hensler with cinematography by Nick Fancher that depicts a preternatural world of fiction where Nadler changes the colour of the water and the sky, while floating effortlessly through a lake, becoming one with the colours and the ink, Nadler says, “When I wrote ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater’, I was contemplating the possibilities of possessing various superhuman powers: teleportation, aquatic breathing, extrasensory protection, and time travel to name a few. As a lyrical device, I married those powers with events in my life, wondering if and how they could change the past or predict the future”, in her press release. ‘Ethereal’ seems like an over-used word to me in the music press of today, but, really, there’s no better word to use for describing the textures of Nadler’s soundscape craftwork here, using a pulsating keyboard rhythm and a delicate, seductive bassline to create a light and flute-like series of sounds. Lyrics like “Shapeshifter, a cloud above your door/Late winter, like a storm” merge together with a poetic fluidity that conjures up a Shoegazing atmosphere and creates some menacing, but defiant, chords that feel as if they’re skipping weightlessly between a row of imaginary clouds while carrying an anchoring resonance through the zoned-out state of the subtle grooves of her rhythm guitar melodies. Lyrics like “If I could bring the moon down/So the day would never come/Would you fly, circle around the sun?” ponder something more philosophical and shore up against her vocals like the tide slowly coming in during a frosty morning at the seaside. Overall, it feels like perfect listening for the dry and icy December or January season of the year, as the melodies feel a bit ‘dreary’ in a way. That’s usually a derogatory statement, but what I really mean to state is that her sound is very cerebral while just about reaching some melodic heights that make it feel catchy enough to resonate. Moreover, the very layered and hallucinatory toolkit of Mary Littlemore’s cosmic harp echo the tone of the story nicely, as to bring the conceit of the song’s title to life in a fictional dream-state way when met with the consistency of the mildly anthemic guitar beats and the gradually paced Drum riffs. An intricate beauty with plenty of diverse inspiration to it.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Path Of The Clouds’ (LP) (Released on October 29, 2021) (via Bella Union Records)

That’s all for now! It is almost time to float away into the good times of Christmas in just a few days away, and so we will be soldiering on with our ‘Countdown To Christmas 2021’ series tomorrow with a brand new and original Christmas single that is also raising money for Feed The Homeless in Bristol. It comes from an equally talented female solo artist who released her debut self-titled LP on Invada Records last year with a follow-up EP releasing earlier this year. She also performed ‘Mork ‘N’ Mindy’ with Sleaford Mods on ‘Later With Jools Holland’ on BBC Two earlier this year.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Emily Alyn Lind – ‘That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!’

December 16, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Emily Alyn Lind on the set of HBO’s ‘Gossip Girl’ (2020) (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/Getty)

Good Morning to you! This is a tired Jacob Braybrooke, but I’m here to ‘Countdown To Christmas’ with you before the Christmas sandwich ranges of the major supermarkets get shelved for another year, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! My fairly recent discovery of Emily Alyn Lind was an interesting and unusual one. That’s because the 19-year-old indie folk singer-songwriter is actually a multi-talented creative and, in fact, I didn’t discover her through listening to music initially. I was simply sat on the sofa during a rainy evening watching ‘Doctor Sleep’ with my two parents at home, and she popped on-screen in the role of Snakebite Andi during the movie, which is well worth checking out. I enjoyed her performance very much and I decided to do some casual research into her, and I found out that she’s also an independent musician – as well as a film and TV actress – who has released some Americana-style music that is right up my alley, as I’m a huge fan of Alexandra Savior and Weyes Blood, who she reminds me of musically. She also directs her own music videos and she’s also been talking about releasing her own full-length album since 2020. ‘Spotless Mind’ and ‘Tantra Practice’ are my favourite songs by her, but her first track was a cover version of Sufjan Stevens’ ‘It’s The Worst Christmas Ever!’ that she issued in 2019. As an actress, Lind can be seen in the duology of ‘The Babysitter’ movies on Netflix, as well as the recent reboot of ‘Gossip Girl’ made by HBO. She began her acting career as a child star on ABC’s ‘Rampage’ and CBS ‘Code Black’ television series in the US, but she has also appeared in some productions like Hulu’s ‘Future Man’, Keanu Reeves’ 2019 Sci-Fi vehicle ‘Replicas’ and 2010’s ‘November Christmas’. Speaking to Vice about the niche dynamic of balancing music with her love for acting on camera, she says, “I was just always writing music since I could remember. My dad introduced me to folk music really young – Bob Dylan, Neil Young – and I just thought they were the coolest people in the world. Instead of wanting to be a ballerina, I just wanted to be Neil Young. I just loved the 60’s”, adding, “But I picked up a guitar and I started writing, so it started to become an outlet for me and I never stopped”, in her conversation. I’d very highly recommend her music videos for ‘Spotless Mind’ and ‘Castles’ because the two tracks showcase her unique personality excellently. However, the Sufjan Stevens cover really fits the theme of the moment here on One Track At A Time. Let’s give it a listen below.

Although she’s only an emerging talent in the film world, the roots of the medium are also in her blood, as she’s one of the youngest members of a dynasty of creatives from the film industry. The ‘Haunting In Connecticut’ 2 star has been working since she was four years old, and she is the daughter of the actress Barbara Alyn Woods and the producer John Lind. Her two sisters, Natalia Alyn Lind and Olyvia Alyn Lind, are also actresses. Her charming and reflective cover of ‘That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!’ captures the slight melancholy of the winter season acutely and insightfully, and she told American Songwriter, “I’ve always loved Sufjan’s take on writing holiday music. Not to get all sad boy here, but I think there’s something so nice about the realistic spin he puts on a genre of music that is very one dimensional. It’s a beautiful song, and a stunning melody, and I hope you like it as much as I do”, in late 2019. I feel that Lind’s sincere, stripped down rendition of Sufjan’s track is probably compared most favorably to Phoebe Bridgers and Bob Dylan, while Lind herself has been drawn intensely to Leonard Cohen and Neil Young since her childhood. It starts off with a sweet, soulful vocal sample that provides a swift opening for her lyrics, which feel soothing and graceful. They are gently poetic, with Lind using her natural voice to complement the radiant and mellow sound in a lovely way that makes the song sound more akin to one of her own. Some of her vocals have been layered, and I love that she doesn’t use any auto-tune here, instead relying on her harmonies and contemplative vocal delivery instead of a sense of over-production. The lyrics are about the commercial industry of Christmas if you will, and so the production choice fits the theme well and pays respect to it. I really like the laidback acoustic guitar melodies as they create a measured pace that works cohesively with her soft and clear vocals, walking the tightrope between soft and bright nicely. There’s some moodier and slowed pacing here and there, but the textures remain warm and delicate throughout with a vulnerability in her voice that is attentive. Overall, the track is a real hidden gem as such from Lind, with a lush fusion of gentle Dream Pop and Americana-tinged indie folk that works with her pure, unsullied by any artifice, vocals beautifully. I follow Emily on Instagram, so I can’t wait to hear more about her upcoming music and movie projects in the future. I think that she’s got an absolutely lovely voice and a natural likability, and I feel she’s a decent actress as well since I felt inclined to do some casual research into her after coming across her instead of just simply forgetting it, and I wish all the best to her with her diversity of projects, since I am glad that I came across her. This cover is a perfect vibe for this ruminating season.

Pictured: Emily Alyn Lind in a recent photoshoot wearing Dior for Harper’s Bazaar (2021) (Photo by Lucas Garrido)

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading my latest post and supporting my daily content on the blog, and I’ll be back tomorrow to guide you through another daily track on the blog, as we take a brief breath of respite away from our annual Christmas coverage. The refreshing change of pace will be a funky one, coming from a Nashville-based Psych Rock singer songwriter who began writing poetry at the age of 8. He released his latest EP, ‘What Box?’, this July and he describes himself as a “walking question mark”. The track was supported by BBC Radio 6 Music host Tom Ravenscroft.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: The Beths – ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’

December 14, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Elizabeth Stokes (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Jonathan Pearce (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Benjamin Sinclair (Bass Guitar/Percussion) in a promotional photoshoot for ‘Jump Rope Gazers’ (2020) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it will nearly be time to start arguing over what movies and TV shows to watch over the busy Christmas weekend, given that we’re continuing the festivities with a new installment in our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ feature, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ is a very traditional Christmas ballad that is difficult to avoid, meaning that we all hear it every year. Originally sung by Judy Garland in 1944, it has been covered by a wide range of artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Sam Smith, Tori Amos, Josh Groban, John Legend, Michael Buble and more. However, I bet you’ve never heard it like this – from the female-led Auckland-based New Zealand indie rock group The Beths. At the time, their cover version came off the back of The Beths’ successful debut album – ‘Future Me Hates Me’ – which was released on Carpark Records in 2018, a record that sold out of all three pressings in its first two months on sale and tallied up over 1.5 million Spotify streams. The band also gained popularity through touring with Death Cab For Cutie throughout the UK and Europe in early 2019 and supporting Bloc Party on their ‘Silent Alarm’ tour in New Zealand the same year. The band’s latest album release was 2020’s ‘Jump Rope Gazers’, which earned strong radio airplay from Triple J, KEXP and BBC Radio 6 Music and additional print support from publications like Noisey, The Age and Beat. Released in 2018, their own version of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ was also given an official music video directed by The Bub Club and Hamish Parkinson, which finally reveals what happens when their little Pup gets up to while the quartet are away on a tour in December. Let’s give it a spin below.

The Beths’ version of the standard ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ originally appeared on a 7″ vinyl single release which also included the special demo tape of ‘Happy Unhappy’ from their well-liked debut studio LP release ‘Future Me Hates Me’, and the proceeds went to the Girls Rock Camp Foundation. Recorded in three seperate continents on their first proper world headline tour, the holders of the ‘Best New Act of 2018′ title via the US music publication Paste decided to ditch their usual up-tempo and guitar pop-oriented style for something a little bit more smooth and silky in essence. Crooning the well-known lyrics of “Let your heart be light/Next year all our troubles will be out of sight”, lead vocalist Beth Stokes leads us into a jaunty guitar line and a steady drum beat that gradually increases in aggression. She softly sings lyrics like “Here we are as in olden days/Happy golden days of yore” with a radiant tone that feels a little bright, but grounded in the mid-tempo progression of the rhythmic instrumentation. Eventually, we hear Stokes’ serenade peak in sizable proportions when the lyrics are cut off by the drums that crash in, the bass guitar that adds a Grunge influence more akin to The Beths’ usual material in the fray, and a propellant String section that retains the delicacy of the original track’s personality that makes it a popular one for very different artists to each cover. The highlight is the soaring guitar solo that really makes this version of the traditional ballad stand out from the many other versions as it retains the joyous delivery of the original, while also treading outside of the comfort zone of the original instrumentation. There’s also a multi-part vocal harmony in the backbeat where the band recite different parts of the song as The Beach Boys or The Kinks may have done in the 60’s and 70’s. Overall, this is a lovely cover of the old track that adds new energy to the original and matches the visuals of their pet dog penning his letters and decorating the house in good taste.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ (Released on 30 Nov, 2018) (via Carpark Records)

The Beths have previously appeared on the blog with their track ‘I’m Not Getting Excited’ from 2020’s ‘Jump Rope Gazers’. Feel free to check it out – But don’t get too excited for it – here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/08/06/todays-track-the-beths-im-not-getting-excited/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Jump Rope Gazers’ (LP) (Released on July 10th, 2020) (via Carpark Records)

That’s all for now! I wish for your day to be as bright and merry as it can be, and I hope to write to you again tomorrow as we continue the ‘Countdown To Christmas’ that must end next weekend. Our next pick is currently Radio X’s ‘Record Of The Week’ and it comes from a Wigan native indie rock band who had a #1 album in the UK in September. They have also been credited with helping to save the local football club.

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Santa’s Scuzz Sundays: LCD Soundsystem – ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’

December 12, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: James Murphy (Vocals/Synths), Nancy Whang (Keyboard/Synths) & Pat Mahoney (Drums) (2017) (via PR)

A Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays to you! This is Father Christmas himself, and it’s time for you to peel and chop down some carrot sticks to leave out for my brilliant Blitzen on Christmas Eve night, when you’ve finished reading my latest ‘Scuzz Sundays’ takeover from Jacob, whose day-to-day pleasure is to write up about a different piece of music every day! Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and IT IS my job. However, we all go through that patch like ‘Christmas With The Kranks’ where we all feel like simply not doing Christmas for one year because it is the busiest and most expensive time of the year and not just the most wonderful. One of my favourite Christmas songs to ever encapsulate that feeling of seeming down around the holiday season is ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’ by the well-established Brooklyn-based Synth Rock icons LCD Soundsystem. This was a standalone digital single that was released by the multi-time Grammy nominated group in 2015 when the rumor mill was circulating around the band’s core line-up reunion before they recorded their critically acclaimed comeback album, ‘American Dream’, for release in 2017. At the time, it marked their first new material in five years. Self-described by frontman and DFA Records co-founder James Murphy as a “depressing Christmas song” at the time of 2015, it was recorded when he found a window of opportunity to reunite with Nancy Whang, Pat Mahoney and Tyler Pope (who agreed to fly in from Berlin (with the determination of my sled and my red-nosed Rudolph) for a few days in New York together during a break between guitarist Al Doyle’s tour dates with Hot Chip. Let’s give it a spin below.

Jacob tells me that ‘Sound Of Silver’ is his favourite LCD Soundsystem album to date. He’s also a huge fan of KEXP, and the listeners of that Washington-based public radio station voted for ‘Sound Of Silver’ to be #23 in their 666 Best Albums Of All Time poll taken in 2019. Murphy had been singing the tune to himself for the past eight years, and the band says that after coming together they “reserved a pressing plant, and our friend Bob Weston was available to master it quickly – so that means, less than 2 weeks after recording it, there is actually a Christmas 7″, which feels like something that could only have happened a very, very long time ago” as December itself is far too late to record a Christmas song in most cases, but I know the feeling as my Little Helper’s head honcho has to rush around at the last minute like a headless turkey every year. A slow ballad along the same lines of 2007’s ‘New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’ from ‘Sound Of Silver’, meaning that Jacob would probably like this track as well, ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’ is a reminder of the rarely heard vocal range of the Alternative Rock pioneers, in terms of their songwriting abilities and stylistic versatility in being able to record festive music, dance tunes, rock ballads, pop crooners and most things in-between. Lyrically, the song is an acceptance that the miracles of Christmas often touted in festive movies and TV perfume advertisements aren’t really things that truly exists. Instead, for Murphy and his co-horts, Christmas is a time more akin for loneliness, isolation, unrealistic expectation and expenses that are devoid of joy. Refrains like “Like that laid back rock ‘n’ roll, Your body’s getting old/It’s much too tired to be bold” talk about how Christmas feels less magical as you get older, while later lyrics like “Like the armies of the unrelenting dark/Once the peace falls apart” talk about the cycle of conflict that humans return to when the time has long gone. There’s enough variety in the lyrics to encompass a broad range of topics under the umbrella of Christmas time, and the gloomy gift of 2015 is a reminder that once you’re the parent paying for the meal and the presents that we share at Christmas and once you fail to believe in Santa Claus (Which, for me, frankly, is an absolutely preposterous idea), the tingling secrets of Christmas fade with diminishing returns across time. It is a bold and pessimistic song, but it is honest. There’s nothing quite like hearing Murphy’s lovesick croon in here, which feels like a bitter cross between David Bowie and Biffy Clyro’s vocalist Simon Neil. It is also a song that we can all relate to, and a subversive twist on the happy-go-lucky and “everything’s just the most amazing thing ever” tone of your typical Christmas single. Overall, while this probably isn’t for everyone due to it’s bleak nature, it is different and it wears its heart on its sleeve. The muted Piano is heartfelt and it meshes nicely with the resonant and steady drums that any self-respecting Christmas song has, and this structuring leads to a wonderful sequence of bass lines towards the final stretch. While it’s unlikely that it will ever be considered a staple at primary school choir recitals or on BBC Radio 2’s daytime programming, it is highly relatable, and it goes for a clear tone that succeeds well. A bittersweet bow of beauty.

Pictured: LCD Soundsystem performing two singles on ‘Saturday Night Live’ (2017) (Photo via Will Heath/NBC)

Jacob has posted about LCD Soundsystem in his early days, including ‘Get Innocuos!’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/08/23/todays-track-lcd-soundsystem-get-innocuous/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Sound Of Silver’ (LP) (Released on March 12th, 2007) (via DFA/EMI/Capitol Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out One Track At A Time today, and Jacob Braybrooke will be in the co-seat again tomorrow to start off another week’s round of daily music posts. I’ve got business to attend to, but he’s told me to tell you that we’ll be catching up on some music that you may have missed earlier in 2021. It comes from an indie folk duo from Bergen, Norway who were the inspiration for Indian duo Parekh & Singh and they topped MTV’s European list of the best music videos of 2004 with ‘I’d Rather Dance With You’. In June, they released their first LP record since 2009.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Julien Baker – ‘A Dreamer’s Holiday’

December 11, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Art for ‘A Dreamer’s Holiday’ (Single) (Re-issued on November 29, 2021) (via Matador Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to decide upon all of your last-minute Christmas gift purchases straight after reading our latest installment of this year’s ‘Countdown To Christmas’ on One Track At A Time, not forgetting that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! ‘A Dreamer’s Holiday’ is a recent cover of the 1945 track of the same title that was originally performed by Perry Como, which the Tennessae-based 26-year-old indie rock singer songwriter Julien Baker released for a ‘Spotify Singles’ collection of Christmas covers by alternative artists in late 2020, exclusively issued for the conglomerate streaming platform – with Black Pumas, Jazmine Sullivan, Ruston Kelly and Dashboard Confessional also appearing on the extended play. Baker has recently re-uploaded the cover to her Bandcamp page, however, and so the 12 month exclusivity deal must have expired, meaning that it is now available to actually buy or download for the first time and it is technically a brand new release if you look at it one way. You may already know that Baker was a member of the Boygenius trio that has similarly launched the solo careers of Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus to the stratosphere in recent years, and Baker’s latest main release was ‘Little Oblivions’, an album that she released in February to solid acclaim and decent commercial success. On the record, she tackled the theme of underlying darkness inside the corners of her mind. Themes such as sobriety, heartache, relapse, failure and redemption were explored on the album, which was mixed by Craig Silvey (Florence & The Machine, The National, Arcade Fire) and engineered by Calvin Lauber, and she recorded it at home in Memphis. ‘A Dreamer’s Holiday’ has only been covered once before by Willie Nelson in 1983. Let’s hear Baker’s spin on the old formula below.

“I chose ‘A Dreamer’s Holiday’ because I found it incredibly unique as far as holiday songs are concerned. It’s a very understated song – both lyrically and musically; while it’s technically about a ‘holiday’, it doesn’t reference any specific holiday theme, it leaves the lyrics a bit more open-ended”, Julien Baker explained last year, adding, “It’s the same way with the music – the chord structure is complicated but surprisingly timeless to me even though the song itself is over 70 years old. It’s the kind of song whose arrangement can be re-imagined so many times, and I love the feeling of sonic potential a single like that gives me”, as she discusses how the task of tackling ‘A Dreamer’s Holiday’ could be considered a challenging one, but her own cover of the track passes off well due to her hard work and determination. The Tennessee native sets the mood with “Climb aboard a butterfly and take off on the breeze” for her daydream-like opening, using some vulnerable finger-style guitar playing before the gentle Horn section enters the picture, with Baker promising to “Make it a long vacation/Time, there’s plenty of” as her reverb-drenched vocal tones create some space for an inviting Piano solo to join the soundscape, with Baker encouraging us to “Help yourself to happiness/Close your eyes and concentrate” prior to the main musical hook of “You will feel terrific when you come down to earth/From a Dreamer’s Holiday” as the tight track draws to it’s natural conclusion. Although not mentioning ‘Christmas’ as a key concept, it feels suitable enough for the season. Baker’s vocals and laidback production provide a mellow quality to the original source material, while her minimalist take on the instrumentation and her tactile guitar melodies would still feel cohesive with the music found on her recent album ‘Little Oblivions’ as the track feels like a somewhat underground choice for a cover version. While the groundwork of the airy String-based scatterings and the subtle scratches of her crackling Vinyl production bears resemblance to her said latest album, sharing similarities with the style of her chronological music, it replaces the more morbid lyricism of that record with lyrics that are brighter. It never gets too excitable and Baker thankfully doesn’t feel the need to place some filler vocals or reach into the realms of a high pitch solo for this, and so I think the track is a good merger between the feelings of anticipation and longing that she wanted to portray. Really, it’s her vocal performance that gets the emphasis here, and she gives the track a relatively short duration so the themes don’t overstay their welcome. Overall, this was a lovely little cover that got the job done and Baker is a true musician having played all, or nearly all, of her instruments on this here track, with some newfound textures that were edited in her signature style. A sumptuous addition to your playlist.

Pictured: Julien Baker in promotional artwork for a ‘Spotify Singles’ collection (2020) (Photo by Alysse Gafken/PR)

‘Little Oblivions’ was previously a pick for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ on the site. We covered ‘Hardline’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/02/26/new-album-release-friday-julien-baker-hardline/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Little Oblivions’ (LP) (Released on February 26th, 2021) (via Matador Records)

That’s all for now! I’ll be taking my own ‘Dreamer’s Holiday’ tomorrow morning as Father Christmas himself will be spreading his share of seasonal cheer by introducing you to one of his favourite edgy hits for ‘Scuzz Sundays’. He’s told me to relay that it will be coming from a legendary Brooklyn native Synth Punk band whose leader is the co-founder of DFA Records. Their 2007 album ‘Sound Of Silver’ was listed as one of the 666 greatest albums of all time by KEXP listeners during a poll finished in 2019.

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Today’s Track: NoSo – ‘Suburbia’

December 9, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Suburbia’ (Single) (Released on September 28th, 2021) (via Partisan Records)

Good Afternoon to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to introduce you to some music that I wish I had gotten around to writing about sooner, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! As we approach mid-December, the time has come for me to tell you about some music that I discovered earlier in the year that still deserves some praise on the blog. ‘Suburbia’ is certainly one of them, a melodic Art Pop track created by the Asian-American indie/alternative singer songwriter Abby Hwong – who releases her music under the alias of ‘No/So’ – who has recently signed to Partisan Records. She was also a finalist of NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2019 with her intimate and acoustic track ‘Abbie’. The 24-year-old musician says that she writes “from the perspective of a queer Asian-American navigating through different environments and relationships, and the confusion, pain and beauty that arises from it” in her music, citing everyone from Ben Howard and Blood Orange to Bruce Springsteen and 90’s K-Pop as her influences. Hwong also graduated from USC’s music department with fellow alumni including Remi Wolf, King Princess, MUNA and Jensen McRae. Even her name of ‘No/So’ is a nod to her Korean roots and the question of “What Korea are you from?” that she says many Americans have been said to ask people of her ethnicity. She is also aware of the lack of representation for her heritage across the entertainment industry, saying, “Growing up, I didn’t see many people who looked like me in music and TV and that was disheartening; I was worried the experiences I had were too uncomfortable and niche” in a very important interview with The Line Of Best Fit. Although now based in Los Angeles, Hwong grew up in the suburban outskirts of Chicago that the popular 2004 comedy drama film ‘Mean Girls’ was based upon, and ‘Suburbia’ – released back in September – reflects upon this upbringing. The Chantel Simpson-directed music video for the single was also inspired by a photograph of an 8-year-old Hwong dressed up for Halloween. ‘Suburbia’ is a diverse track that really cements her voice as one that needs hearing from her upcoming album. Give it a spin.

‘Suburbia’ is a personal and vulnerable document of the narrow-minded nature of a one-dimensional environment that Hwong grew up in, and she notes, “I was a very weird kid growing up because the environment was predominantly white and hetereonormative. I stood out like a sore thumb, even though I deeply wanted to conform”, in her conversation with The Line Of Best Fit. Regarding her sexuality, No/So also tells them, “Throughout middle school and early high school, I was teased for being Asian and Queer (even though I was closeted). I was called ‘lesbian’ as a slur, girls asked me out as a joke etc, it was heinous”, in the article. Thankfully, Hwong turned to writing music during her formative years with a keen interest in playing the guitar. Part indie rock ballad and part melodic Synth Pop diary entry, Hwong tries to accept the hardships of her past while holding on to the nostalgic times with her friends. She uses lyrics like “Rich kids and boutique drugs/And I miss you like it’s enough” to call back to the innocence of youth with her tongue slightly in her cheek. Small anecdotes like “We sit outside the pharmacy/Eating golden Oreo’s” recall the small but profound moments of her teenage years that you never quite register until you move forward in time. She also discusses the absurdities and the norms of her suburban life with lyrics about mum’s gossiping about their teenage children and the other laughing stock of those seasons. Her instrumentation is radiant and eminently listenable, with a hazy and spacious vibe coming off the back of some slacker rock guitar melodies. The different layers build quite slowly, but the tone is blissful and the vocals seem poetic throughout. Combining her unique experiences of growing up in a different environment that wasn’t immediately accessible to her with some quips about the indignities of reaching your adulthood after two decades of suburban life, ‘Suburbia’ feels like a well-proportioned slice of Desert Rock charm that features a rousing chorus and feels like a better fit for the title of the track than the Pet Shop Boys’ chart-topping recording of the same name from the late-80’s. Gorgeous vocals set against well-rounded production with a catchy chorus – ‘Suburbia’ feels essential.

Pictured: NoSo (Abby Hwong) in a photoshoot for a We All Want Someone To Shout For interview (2018) (via PR)

That’s all for now! Thank you for supporting the blog and favoring independent creatives like No/So, and I’ll be back tomorrow to mark the return of one of our recurring favourites on the blog as we continue the ‘Countdown To Christmas’ as the festive season rolls along like a reindeer strapped up to a sleigh. The artist is a 90’s Alternative icon with several Grammy Award wins and nominations to his name. ‘Odelay’ and ‘Sea Change’ were both ranked on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All-Time and he co-created the amusing credits song for The LEGO Movie 2.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Pentatonix – ‘The Prayer’

December 4, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Evergreen’ (LP) (Released on October 29, 2021) (via RCA Records)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and its time for you to hesitantly place your minty fine After Eight’s back into the cupboard despite your temptations since the actual day hasn’t arrived yet, as we ‘Countdown To Christmas’ with another festive post on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you’re a fan of the ‘Pitch Perfect’ films – here’s something that Yule possibly find to be ‘Aca-Awesome’. ‘The Prayer’ is a cover version of the 1998 relaxed duet tune made famous by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, later covered by Paradise & Anthony Callea to notable reviews. The most recent version, however, comes from the A-capella group of Pentatonix who were formed back in Arlington, Texas during 2011 who won the sixth season of NBC’s ‘The Sing Off’ on US TV and scored a lucrative $200,000 record deal with Sony Music to reward their time. Although I can recall little of their material, I seem to think Pentatonix are a pretty famous group in popular culture. I’d heard their name before researching away for ‘The Prayer’ and I know that most of their music is also Christian Contemporary. Their YouTube channel has over 19 million subscribers and their videos have over 5 billion views, and the act have won three Grammy awards, having become the first A Capella project to win ‘Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella’ in 2015 and 2016. They are no strangers to releasing seasonal albums, but ‘Evergreen’ is their latest yuletide album release and their tenth LP record overall. Let’s check out the lead single below.

The former holders of the #1 spot on Billboard’s Independent Albums Chart for a time in 2013, Pentatonix got into the festive spirit pretty early, having released ‘Evergreen’ on October 29th via RCA Records and promoted it with a performance of ‘The Prayer’ with hopeful contestant Victory Brinker on ‘America’s Got Talent’ recently. The band also announced a new Christmas tour to go with the album that is currently running, and they will be taking their intimate live sets to US venues in Kentucky, Illinois and Minnesota later this month. In what feels like the most painful and obvious statement that I’ve written on the blog all year round, because that’s the point of the genre, the emphasis is purely on the vocal performance and the verbal delivery of the lyrics here, just to get our discussion about ‘The Prayer’ rolling. Opening up with a spacious set of long harmonies, the band lead the faithful anthem with “I pray you’ll be our eyes/And watch us where we go” as the 5-piece match up the religious context of the lyrics to the spacious backing harmonies that back Mitch Grassi’s lead up. Hopeful lyrics like “Guide us with your grace/To a place where we’ll be safe” and “A world where pain and sorrow will be ended/And every heart that’s broken will be mended” hope to put the ‘Christ’ into ‘Christmas’ as the band members all trade exchanges between each other, with reverberated bass patterns created from their tenor voices creating an operatic backdrop for the optimistic songwriting. Some extra variety is added to the sounds when the band member Scott Hoying sings the Italian lyrics of Bocelli to complement the backing vocals of Kirstin Maldonaldo and Kevin Olusola who take the position of Celine Dion in retrospect, as he hits the notes with a sense of fragility that makes the track feel produced quite delicately. ‘The Prayer’ has a nice blend of Soul and Classical to it that has a pleasant theme to it, and although the production risks feeling a tad bit commercial at times, Pentatonix sell it decently and it feels like it is adding a new twist to the original track, a goal that all of the most effective cover versions of older records should strive to achieve. I can’t claim to know the technical aspects of A Capella, but I still enjoyed hearing this. Ripe for the season.

Pictured: Scott Hoying (Baritone Lead/Backing Vocals), Mitch Grassi (Tenor Lead/Backing Vocals), Kirstin Maldonaldo (Alto Lead/Backing Vocals), Kevin Olusola (Vocal Percussion/Beatboxing/Cello/Backing Vocals) and Matt Sallee (Vocal Bass/Bass Lead/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2021) (Photo courtesy of Getty Images for DCP)

That’s enough of testing out our voices for one day! Thank you for checking out the blog today, it is very highly appreciated, and I finally get a day off from writing a post everyday on the blog tomorrow because a very special guest who lives in the North Pole will be taking over the weekly ‘Scuzz Sundays’ feature throughout December. His 1st selection comes from another Christian Contemporary group whose lead vocalist Matt Thiessen was a co-producer for Owl City’s 2012 album ‘The Midsummer Station’.

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Today’s Track: Kadhja Bonet – ‘For You’

December 2, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Kadhja Bonet in a professional PR shoot to promote ‘For You’ (2021) (Photo via Fat Possum Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to give a warm welcome to another daily post on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 33-year-old singer songwriter born in Richmond, California – Kadhja Bonet is an LA-based artist who has recently announced her solo return to the business following three years on a hiatus. Resembling Psychedelic Pop and 70’s Funk & Soul sounds in her typical output, Bonet learned how to play the violin and she studied classical music in her childhood while growing up in a musical family. Following collaborations in recent times with the likes of Khruangbin, Nicolas Godin (from Air), Khruangbin and Free Nationals, Bonet has received critical acclaim from sites like Pitchfork and The Line Of Best Fit for her two last solo albums. An 80’s-leaning track that encompasses modern Synth Rock and retro Electro-Pop, ‘For You’ is an ode to “showing up for yourself in any form that may take” for the Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo 2014 graduate, who states, “I wanted to create something new for myself, not to overthink or be held onto a certain genre”, in her own words about the single in her attached press notes. Let’s give it a spin below.

Talking about her comeback to writing and recording her new solo music after the three year break, Bonet has written, “My forced hiatus from music has created an urgency in brand redirection. I began making music to get to know myself and fortify connections, and in many ways, I have derailed away from that intention”, explaining to us, “I reflect on my last few years as a recording artist and see someone trying desperately to fit the mold, despite music that does not. To be pretty, to be liked, to be relevant, good or accepted” in recent interview material. To meet these goals, she conjures up a Chiptune-enhanced Synth backdrop and a swelling series of long vocal harmonies to make ‘For You’ feel, in equal parts, like a plea for love in the vastness of a Tron-like virtual world as it does a warm cruise through the bright British sea side in the summer time. Establishing a tone of clarity without confusion, Bonet uses lyrics like “Teach me a lesson I thought I knew/I still need learning/But I’m a fast learner when it comes to you” and “I’m looking for you/Now that I’ve found you/I’m seeing this through” to provide reassurance to the listener and yearn her tales of warmth, although it’s unclear whether she’s making promises to accept herself as a personal ode or addressing a new romantic partner, and this denotation of her lyrics are left wonderfully open to your own interpretation. A hypnotic mixture of unapologetically 80’s Synth-Pop influences and sparse Drum Machine riffs that are dressed in a dream-like quality in terms of mood, create the rich electronic backdrop of Synth-forward keyboard arrangements and a euphoric electronic crescendo that reverberates and breaks neon 80’s barriers. Using the experience that Bonet has developed during her time away, ‘For You’ is a nice evolution for the artist and a warm welcome back to recording for her, with a new single that sounds accessible yet decorated by her own conscience, instead of commercial goals. A self-sensuous, dramatic return to the fold.

Pictured: Kadhja Bonet in promotional photoshoot artwork to promote ‘Childqueen’ (2018) (Photo via Last.fm)

That leaves me with very little left to say for now! Thank you for checking out the blog for the first or latest time, and please feel free to join me tomorrow for our final regular entry of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ until the new year. This week’s record comes from a Venezuelan transgender artist who is one of the busiest figures in the industry right now, as they will be completing a quintet of interconnected LP’s this week. She’s collaborated with Bjork – as well as produced for Kanye West and Rosalia.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Jens Lekman – ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’

December 1, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Jens Lekman in a garden photoshoot for a Bandcamp Daily feature (2017) (Photo by Ellika Henrikson)

Good Afternoon to you! You are reading the words of independent music journalist Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to clock in for yet another daily track on the blog – since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It’s the 1st of December today, and so a new entry in our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series for this year is a must-have. However, it feels a touch too early for a true Christmassy ballad yet to me, and so here’s something a little bit more generally winter-specific for your enjoyment instead. ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ is a gorgeous and transcendant one from Jens Lekman, a Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter from Gothenburg. Known for his lyrics that are usually anecdotal and wry, backed by sampled strings and guitar-oriented melancholic pop textures, Jens is one of my favourite purest songwriters in the industry, and so any excuse for me to talk about his creative choices is enough to make me grin from ear to ear. Written in the style of a narrative, as usual for the former Swedish #1 album chart holder Lekman, ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ is one of the finest tracks to be found on his first full-length album, ‘When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog’, which he self-produced and released via Service in April of 2004. It was re-released with slight variations by the more well-known label, Secretly Canadian, later on that year. Let’s spin the winter ballad below.

‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ by Jens Lekman is also the namesake and theme tune for a radio drama series which airs on BBC Radio 4. Showrunner and voice actor Danny Robins was influenced to create the sitcom after hearing the ditty, which tells the story of a marginally successful London-born stand-up comic who has relocated to Sweden that began in August 2014, and it began airing it’s fifth series last December. Given that he’s still a pretty niche artist, I can only wonder if Jens actually knows about the programme. Still, it is easy to see why ‘The Cold Swedish Winter’ sparked some ideas because it truly is a very pretty number. As usual for Lekman, the lyrics are dry but lightly comedic, with sequences which compare Cliff Richard and Lou Reed’s ideas of Sweden briefly, and other lines that involve porn and gonorrhea. It feels intimate and striped back, and his instrumentation lacks the budgetary bells and whistles of contemporary acts but it still manages to encapsulate the comforting and frosty feelings of the festive season decently enough, so it therefore still manages to click together as a Christmas single despite not intentionally being designed as one. He uses simple refrains like “The Cold Swedish Winter is right outside, and I just need somebody to hold me through the night” to set the romantic scene of asking a girl to pretend that he likes her. She replies in a shy call-and-response format, hushing him with solid refrains that expose his simple desire to feel loved. It also ends with Lekman’s typically introverted twist on the material, where he predicts the future of Sweden where archaeologists will dig up their hearts of stone. On paper, it looks random and seems as though it plainly shouldn’t work. However, it does cohere, as Lekman manages to sound convincing with his voice and tell the anecdote with a sincere, somber note where although we don’t know whether the overall anecdote is true or fictional fantasy, but he makes me feel like it is, as his listener. A patient and thought-provoking songwriter, Lekman is the type of artist who I could write a full essay about if I could be assigned to. Meanwhile, the mournful Violin samples that underscore the point and the powerful female vocals are the metaphorical angel on top of this Christmas tree. Overall, its an icy visual as pretty as a hand-drawn painting.
Pictured: Jens Lekman performing ‘A Postcard To Nina’ live (in 2008) (Photo via Interface Sessions)

Last December, we effectively reacted here on the blog to the day where the UK government essentially axed Christmas, and the kind words of Jens Lekman came to our aid like Rudolph on that fateful night with a song that helped us all to put these things into some proportion. Relive the emotional moment with the post here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/12/22/todays-track-jens-lekman-the-end-of-the-world-is-bigger-than-love/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’ (Released on Sept 5th, 2007) (via Secretly Canadian)

That’s all from me today! Thank you for your support with the site, as usual, and please keep an eye out for tomorrow’s post. It comes from a fresh face on the blog whose music resembles psychedelic soul, prog jazz and alternative folk. Raised in Richmond, California – she participated in the Red Bull Music Academy programme in Tokyo in 2014 – where she co-recorded ‘Late Night Munchies’ with RJ & Mark Maxwell.

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