What do I do with a love that won't sit still?
New CD in! (We'll it's technically Kate's) but we've been squeeing and listening to it all afternoon, so you all get to read my initial impressions review on Vienna Teng's new album, Inland Territory.
....I say initial impressions because her music has a habit of growing on me and lyric interpretations are changing all the time and stuff. I kinda just want them here so I can remember my initial feelings. Kate and I spend a surprising amount of time mulling over our song associations and stuff (we kinda... do this with BPAL too) and so this is a minced down version of our chill-afternoon analysis. Also, this is basically Kelly thought-puke, so...uh, make of my babble what you will
The Last Snowfall: This song is wistful and tender and contemplative, it's about two people in an intimate winter moment together, with one of them wondering what they'd say if this were 'their last-'. Its a wondering about the nostalgia that isn't even nostalgia yet. It reminds me of 5 Cm per Second again, that scene in the snow where they kiss. Its that moment where you have an emotion about someone, and right there in the moment you can't find the words to express it, but you feel this strong pining to get something out, lest this be your last chance. Previewed this one when I saw her live! And she did it with all the soaring vocal loops right there on her soundboard track thingy right in front of her. When she set them up, she made this breathy noise that sounded in the loop almost like the hiss-chug of a steam engine. But the recorded version's got this whole...weird scratchy vintage record/ popping fire sound instead that tells you right off the bat this album is a folky nostalgia fest.
White Light This is a very different tone, its lots of syncopation and weird electric guitar/keyboard pop. Its got a slightly synthy sound that feels 80's early 90's? It's like...the after-rattle of succumbing to peer pressure and addictions, this song. Or the little voice that runs through the back of your head, guilty and self-berating
Antellebellum Ah, the song that's been stuck in our head continually since hearing her live last month. Kate's been so hot on this song since she heard it last summer, I can totally agree. Now I can sit and hear the full intrumental in high quality and I love the way it builds, sweeping strings, the piano, is that marimba I'm hearing now? The military beat, music, Alex Wong (the repetitive part at the end reminds me a lot of The Animators' song Golden Age now) and the melody line are...gah, really pretty. I still can't decide what the song is about...the tension of a run-in meeting after long, hostile estrangement...I'm thinking now that it's the split-ways siblings of a divorced couple, or looking back on an old friendship that didn't work out.
Kansas Agggh I think I was spoiled for this song by hearing a preview piano-only version of this a few weeks ago. The album's version's slower, uses a keyboard, has more of a slow jazz feel...which fills it too much, I think. But god I can forgive it with the lyric and Vienna's phrasing with her vocals, which has grown on me insanely. This is a lonely looking back at another failed relationship, and the ache is really tangible. Whoo, midwestern imagery has never sounded so defeated and longing.
In Another Life Literally, an homage to these tragic past lives of a couple finding who struggle through over again...(the soulbonders will like this one?) and how the reincarnation in this current age is lucky to have things so well? Its...Dixie jazz folksy? Clarinets and railroad music, silent picture sound. SO very folk musicy Americana in the instrumentalization. Interesting. A little eerie
Grandmother Song I. Love. This. Ahhh she's so ballsy to put this out there, I adored hearing it live so hard. Pretty much its the most openly autobiographical thing on this album, its essentially the monologue she's been hearing over and over from her Gramma. It's accapella, improvy. There's pots and pans and clapping percussion and a fiddle break, it sounds Living Room recorded. Its intense and fun and...gah. It makes me very fond of the older generation and their strength, even though we get frustrated sometimes at their nagging. Its nice to hear Vienna Teng kinda raw and wild and energetic and totally in-character.
Stray Italian Greyhound I caught the LYRICS to this thing online a few months ago, and since its been the thing I've been looking forward to hearing the most. YES. Oh gosh. Its the sensible, rational girl who finds sudden rush of hope and wide eyed romantic optimism unexpectedly. This could become sort of a theme song for me, I think. Its a welling up excited sound, I super love the syncopation and the lyric and the strings going all crazy towards the end. Also this teeny digital sparkle at the end reminds me of me too. ^-^
Augustine Another nice, fiercely energetic song. This is kind of the after-panic of Greyhound, its chimey and it reminds me of the same driving sound in Harbor. I like it alot, I still need to decide exactly what it means.
No Gringo Fffff this is a genius socio-political reversal statement, packaged into a really cool combination of styles. It keeps shifting, I can't pin it down. This is Vienna's City Hall for Mexican Immigrants, with WHAT A TWEEST! Basically, its the 'what if' of Americans in the shoes of Mexican Immigrants, taking refuge in a country where they're not welcomed. One of those things I need to listen to several times to pick up on everything...
Watershed. Holy. Shit. Blow my mind eerie powerful haunting. I read somewhere in song notes for this that its The Ocean's answer to Pontchartrain and...fff. The deep bells/chimes and the low swell of piano and strings...its so creepy. Reminds you that natural disaster is an ancient, wiser, nastier bitch than all of us.
Radio Mm...its like apocalyptic dystopian goodness. Catchy beat. Fast, panic-urgest rock ballad. Vocal siren effect is awesome. Scratchy, rattling percussion line is awesome. And then, abruptly- Alex Wong and Vienna, crooning in slow distortion 'Sing me a love song dear
What good has the news ever done me/ Come on it'll never happen here, oh no/ We are not some third world country ' and you realize OHSHIT, this isn't actually apocalyptic, its about our snap-off-the-news apathy. It reminds me a little of the thoughts building up anxious in the pit of my stomach after 911
St. Stephen's Cross Complex, stirring, there's...a lot going on here at once again, at one point it gets super cacaphony. But the song-story again here is like...speaking volumes. Guy and Girl together, get separated in the middle of something....like....fall-of-Berlin-wall monumental? (I'm not sure what event this is referring too, if any at all, there's been some speculation) Anyway, two people get separated from each other in the middle of a mass of people witnessing or involved in something bigger than them. That feeling. You're in the middle of something BIG, and then...two people, intimate. It's a nice juxaposition.
They were there the night the wall was drowned
In the surging of that tidal crowd:
An old world made new
On the same holy ground.
She found him standing, looking lost
In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross,
And he closed his eyes and heard no sound
But her breathing warm against his mouth.
Overall: Damn this album is full of unsettling subjects and a range of styles and sounds you're not gonna hear on your average release. Its folky and storytelling and moving and depressing and uplifting In a delicious combination. Its very...timeless, or almost artfully anachronistic, or fictionally vintage, something like that.
Also, whine, was gonna go to Drum Circle tonight, but biking 6 miles home in the dark by myself is probably not the best idea. Next time, Dandelion, next time.
....I say initial impressions because her music has a habit of growing on me and lyric interpretations are changing all the time and stuff. I kinda just want them here so I can remember my initial feelings. Kate and I spend a surprising amount of time mulling over our song associations and stuff (we kinda... do this with BPAL too) and so this is a minced down version of our chill-afternoon analysis. Also, this is basically Kelly thought-puke, so...uh, make of my babble what you will
The Last Snowfall: This song is wistful and tender and contemplative, it's about two people in an intimate winter moment together, with one of them wondering what they'd say if this were 'their last-'. Its a wondering about the nostalgia that isn't even nostalgia yet. It reminds me of 5 Cm per Second again, that scene in the snow where they kiss. Its that moment where you have an emotion about someone, and right there in the moment you can't find the words to express it, but you feel this strong pining to get something out, lest this be your last chance. Previewed this one when I saw her live! And she did it with all the soaring vocal loops right there on her soundboard track thingy right in front of her. When she set them up, she made this breathy noise that sounded in the loop almost like the hiss-chug of a steam engine. But the recorded version's got this whole...weird scratchy vintage record/ popping fire sound instead that tells you right off the bat this album is a folky nostalgia fest.
White Light This is a very different tone, its lots of syncopation and weird electric guitar/keyboard pop. Its got a slightly synthy sound that feels 80's early 90's? It's like...the after-rattle of succumbing to peer pressure and addictions, this song. Or the little voice that runs through the back of your head, guilty and self-berating
Antellebellum Ah, the song that's been stuck in our head continually since hearing her live last month. Kate's been so hot on this song since she heard it last summer, I can totally agree. Now I can sit and hear the full intrumental in high quality and I love the way it builds, sweeping strings, the piano, is that marimba I'm hearing now? The military beat, music, Alex Wong (the repetitive part at the end reminds me a lot of The Animators' song Golden Age now) and the melody line are...gah, really pretty. I still can't decide what the song is about...the tension of a run-in meeting after long, hostile estrangement...I'm thinking now that it's the split-ways siblings of a divorced couple, or looking back on an old friendship that didn't work out.
Kansas Agggh I think I was spoiled for this song by hearing a preview piano-only version of this a few weeks ago. The album's version's slower, uses a keyboard, has more of a slow jazz feel...which fills it too much, I think. But god I can forgive it with the lyric and Vienna's phrasing with her vocals, which has grown on me insanely. This is a lonely looking back at another failed relationship, and the ache is really tangible. Whoo, midwestern imagery has never sounded so defeated and longing.
In Another Life Literally, an homage to these tragic past lives of a couple finding who struggle through over again...(the soulbonders will like this one?) and how the reincarnation in this current age is lucky to have things so well? Its...Dixie jazz folksy? Clarinets and railroad music, silent picture sound. SO very folk musicy Americana in the instrumentalization. Interesting. A little eerie
Grandmother Song I. Love. This. Ahhh she's so ballsy to put this out there, I adored hearing it live so hard. Pretty much its the most openly autobiographical thing on this album, its essentially the monologue she's been hearing over and over from her Gramma. It's accapella, improvy. There's pots and pans and clapping percussion and a fiddle break, it sounds Living Room recorded. Its intense and fun and...gah. It makes me very fond of the older generation and their strength, even though we get frustrated sometimes at their nagging. Its nice to hear Vienna Teng kinda raw and wild and energetic and totally in-character.
Stray Italian Greyhound I caught the LYRICS to this thing online a few months ago, and since its been the thing I've been looking forward to hearing the most. YES. Oh gosh. Its the sensible, rational girl who finds sudden rush of hope and wide eyed romantic optimism unexpectedly. This could become sort of a theme song for me, I think. Its a welling up excited sound, I super love the syncopation and the lyric and the strings going all crazy towards the end. Also this teeny digital sparkle at the end reminds me of me too. ^-^
Augustine Another nice, fiercely energetic song. This is kind of the after-panic of Greyhound, its chimey and it reminds me of the same driving sound in Harbor. I like it alot, I still need to decide exactly what it means.
No Gringo Fffff this is a genius socio-political reversal statement, packaged into a really cool combination of styles. It keeps shifting, I can't pin it down. This is Vienna's City Hall for Mexican Immigrants, with WHAT A TWEEST! Basically, its the 'what if' of Americans in the shoes of Mexican Immigrants, taking refuge in a country where they're not welcomed. One of those things I need to listen to several times to pick up on everything...
Watershed. Holy. Shit. Blow my mind eerie powerful haunting. I read somewhere in song notes for this that its The Ocean's answer to Pontchartrain and...fff. The deep bells/chimes and the low swell of piano and strings...its so creepy. Reminds you that natural disaster is an ancient, wiser, nastier bitch than all of us.
Radio Mm...its like apocalyptic dystopian goodness. Catchy beat. Fast, panic-urgest rock ballad. Vocal siren effect is awesome. Scratchy, rattling percussion line is awesome. And then, abruptly- Alex Wong and Vienna, crooning in slow distortion 'Sing me a love song dear
What good has the news ever done me/ Come on it'll never happen here, oh no/ We are not some third world country ' and you realize OHSHIT, this isn't actually apocalyptic, its about our snap-off-the-news apathy. It reminds me a little of the thoughts building up anxious in the pit of my stomach after 911
St. Stephen's Cross Complex, stirring, there's...a lot going on here at once again, at one point it gets super cacaphony. But the song-story again here is like...speaking volumes. Guy and Girl together, get separated in the middle of something....like....fall-of-Berlin-wall monumental? (I'm not sure what event this is referring too, if any at all, there's been some speculation) Anyway, two people get separated from each other in the middle of a mass of people witnessing or involved in something bigger than them. That feeling. You're in the middle of something BIG, and then...two people, intimate. It's a nice juxaposition.
They were there the night the wall was drowned
In the surging of that tidal crowd:
An old world made new
On the same holy ground.
She found him standing, looking lost
In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross,
And he closed his eyes and heard no sound
But her breathing warm against his mouth.
Overall: Damn this album is full of unsettling subjects and a range of styles and sounds you're not gonna hear on your average release. Its folky and storytelling and moving and depressing and uplifting In a delicious combination. Its very...timeless, or almost artfully anachronistic, or fictionally vintage, something like that.
Also, whine, was gonna go to Drum Circle tonight, but biking 6 miles home in the dark by myself is probably not the best idea. Next time, Dandelion, next time.