musically asiding

[realthog]

A few posts ago I mentioned that these days I'm listening to classical music almost to the exclusion of all other forms.

This evening, on the other hand . . .

I looked to one side and there was my copy of Vienna Teng's Inland Territory. A  couple of its tracks are inarguably pop/rock, but most of the rest are in that area where borderlines haze. I popped the CD onto the player, and it's now disturbing the neighbours . . . which is saying something, as the nearest neighbours are about two hundred yards away.

Yes, I was right.

This is the best new CD I've heard in the past couple of years.

Comments

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Well, because of your post, I went, I sampled, and I purchased.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Well, in that case I'm glad I wasn't talking about Mantovani . . .

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

She's something like Tori Amos, only much better diction and without the weird disconnected lyrics. Similar to Imogene Heap in some ways, as well, so a good choice for me.

I'm not saying I'll pick up everything you recommend, mind. I recall we have differences of opinion about Portishead, frex, which in theory is a group I should adore, but do not. Mantovani...eh, Mom and Dad had about a million recordings, and I uniformly hated them all.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Others have made the Amos comparison, but I don't get it myself. The fact that for some reason I find Amos more or less unlistenable-to may have something to do with this!

The comparison I note is in her diction and phrasing, which I find very reminiscent of Janis Ian's.

I was lucky in that my parents hated Mantovani if anything even more than I did. We played a lot of Beethoven.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

The comparison is roughly: girl with sweet and true (but not strong) voice + killer piano + musicality. Amos is hit or miss with me. When she hits, as in her early works, she's amazing. When she misses, it's nigh-on unlistenable. Heap, on the other hand, just keeps knocking them out of the park for me.

*nod* to Janis Ian comparison.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I recall we have differences of opinion about Portishead, frex, which in theory is a group I should adore, but do not.

I liked their Dummy album, and the live one's above tolerable, but the rest of their stuff, and all their solo work, I find pretty dreary.