Heartland

[another max]

I've been visiting only sporadically so please forgive me if this has been covered (and please direct me to wherever I might find it), but

I would be really interested to hear from John (and anyone else with passion for it) what they love about Pallett's Heartland.  I've been listening to this album nonstop for well over a month now and I'm still having some trouble discerning what about it is so engrossing.  I could use some help from the pro's.

[ellaguru]

One thing I will say about it is that I really like the arrangements. Whenever pop music has string sections, it almost always sounds like the songwriter decided, hey, somebody should put some stringy things here for 8 bars or so, that would be awesome, and then somebody else came in with a string section and added 8 bars of stringy things. And either you end up with nifty flourishes on an already finished song or you end up with distracting noises on an already finished song. Heartland, on the other hand, sounds like it is 12 pieces written for pop chamber orchestra.

Also, I saw Mr. Pallett on Thursday night, and that guy has gotten a lot better in concert than he was a couple years back. I think back then I would have described his show as "he does a lot of live looping, like Andrew Bird, only not as good". Now he probably is as good, and you can tell he's keeping some pretty complicated arrangements in his noggin as he creates his songs right there in front of ya. Also, of course, the songs he's doing are better, too.

[Good Intentions]

Whenever pop music has string sections, it almost always sounds like the songwriter decided, hey, somebody should put some stringy things here for 8 bars or so, that would be awesome, and then somebody else came in with a string section and added 8 bars of stringy things. And either you end up with nifty flourishes on an already finished song or you end up with distracting noises on an already finished song.

Well, there's always the first Verlaines album (Hallelujah All the Way Home) which has string sections so it could qualify as Graeme Downes's project for a class in composition at university. He got an A.

[ellaguru]

Oh, I'm sure there are tons of counterexamples to my rather sweeping claim.

Unless you're just trying to make me admit I've never hear the Verlaines.

[Good Intentions]

I didn't think you're claim was the type that was supposed to not have counterexamples! I thought that Hallelujah All the Way Home has string sections for an unexpected and somewhat amusing reason. I also think you should listen to the Verlaines, and with all speed. The best-of they released a few years ago (You're Too Obscure for Me) is very good, as is the comp of early non-album releases Juvenalia. The albums Hallelujah... and Bird-Dog are indispensible as well, and the interminable 'Verlaines...' thread starts off with an argument abut whether the next few albums are also as good. Also, watch the Verlaines videos on YouTube. They're class.

OK, thread hijack over.

[ellaguru]

Yeah, every time that Verlaines thread gets bumped I am reminded that I have a musical gap to fill, and then I fail to fill it.

[G.C.R]

Do it
Dooooooooo it

[reebty]

I'm not familiar with Pallett's work as Final Fantasy at all, but Heartland probably became my favourite album of the year so far after two listens.

[clare]

Yikes, these bots are getting clever...but in a really off topic way...

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

i'm not seeing any bots on this page?

[G.C.R]

There was one, but it was deleted. not one of the classics (not a genital doctor.)

[clare]

Yeah, it had used (rewritten) a bunch of mum-stuff I'd said to Bernard in a white courtesy phone thread, and interspersed it with hotlinks to its website that were unrelated to any of the topics at hand...

[alexandra]

I love owen. Last year I saw him in Vienna (ran into Heathcote there wtf) the day after he played on FM4 with the Vienna symphony. Live he is 1000% better than on record but Heartland is great.