by ThunderCurl » Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:36 am
This review really interested me. And given the other thread about samples, I went to CDBaby to listen to clips of her stuff.
5,4,3. Average 4. I almost didn't even read the reviews. But they were very interesting. No real criticisms that went beyond sheer taste. And yet...no one could "agree" on a rating. And no one quite knew how to react.
I listened to her stuff, and i gotta say, it's awesome. Really cool stuff. Engaging, harmonically and compositionally cool while keeping a stylistic and cultural simplicity that achieved her goals. Many things repeated over and over again, which I found hypnotising and fun. And energetic. Something we don't see.
Her music has this soul that "contemporary a cappella" doesn't have. None of it. Not even the Bubs, where it's awesome but just because of a performance factor. This was awesome because it was awesome in and of itself. Very little production magic. Little "studio" arranging (it seemed). Little flash and smash. It was all voices, it all sounded like voices, and it had a tone and energy all it's own.
The Question. This doesn't fall into the categorization of "contemporary a cappella" like most collegiate groups, for example, do. How do we react to something with which we're not very familiar? We don't have a checklist of things to see whether it's awesome or not...and in some ways, the reviews troubled over taste and preference rather than quality and objective. If someone tries something different, is it bad? Is it a preference judgment? Are we shocked into indifference or anti-preference? How can we drag ourselves out of our bubbles to really appreciate something different?
I wouldn't put this on my Top 40 playlist, but it's cool music, and definitely worth regarding. It just interested me how the reviews didn't know...what to do with the album.
Tyler Herman
Pushing Sound- DC vocal band ('09-present)
Cornell U. Last Call ('05-'09)
Rock Beats Paper vocal band- Ithaca, NY ('06-'08)
Quiet Hours- Barbershop Quartet ('08-'09)
"When Freedom is outlawed, only Outlaws will be Free."