I can't decide if she sounds like Regina Spektor, Katrina Elam or Leigh Nash. All are amazing vocalist, so I suppose any would be a good thing.. this feels the same as everything else though. I don't hear anything special, no extra creativity, no originality, it's just boring to me. I love acoustics, but she sounds like every other pop artist on the radio right now. Pretty girl, pretty voice, pretty song.. a hit? I highly doubt it.

"A butterfly under the glass
You are beautiful, But you're not going anywhere."

That's my opinion, anyway.

 

haha you're brutal, vicky.

i listened to the song before reading arpit's review or your comment, and i thought it was beautiful. gorgeous melody - i wasn't bored at all. if he posts a crappy song i'd be the first to shoot it down haha. i guess you have to be unexpectant to appreciate a dreamy song like this - if you're expecting the song to blow you away or to be eventful, you end up sitting through the song just waiting for what aint coming, rather than just letting it carry you away.

and that's my opinion, anyway.

 

and there's not really much scope for having an "original" sound when you're doing acoustic, i mean she doesn't have darren king and roy mitchell and greg king backing her up, ya know? the lyrics were poetic enough and her voice carried it well enough, for me at least. this is going on my iPod.

maybe girls are just harder on female vocals, and maybe us guys are just biased towards her silky, sensual voice. whatever it is, i can't lie - i think this song's the work of a very good songwriter.

 

Phil, for a great male artist, you should check out David Condos or Brett Dennen. I both of their albums.

Priscilla Ahn is nice, but I have to agree with Vicky. A little boring. The lyrics are nice, but the tune is...marginal.

I think it IS true that girls tend to have a harder time listening to girls voices. There are very few female artists that don't make me want to hurt someone.....in other words, they just irritate me to the point of insanity.

 

Yes, kinda like Regina Spektor (I'm thinking "Samson" played in guitar), kinda like KT Tunstall, a little bit early Lisa Loeb, I think. I suppose a bit formulaic, but great voice. :D

My gosh, I was expecting Cat Power silky, sensual, Phil! I think I expected too much as well. :P

I liked "Are We Different," but "Lullaby" I had to stop midway... I just woke up, he-he. ;D (Sorry, that was mean.)

I'll give it another listen, of course.

Thanks for the cool post, Arpit! :D

 

Heh, I don't know if it's mixed reactions if you're the only one that liked it Phil :p

Well, here's my 2 cents on it. First of all, girls and guys alike (I've noticed) tend to fall on the more critical side with a female singer than they would with a male. Maybe that's you, maybe not. Secondly, an artist (or a song) is judged by more than what it reminds one of. Music is an expression of oneself, and in the case of a singer-songwriter, that makes their music unique to them.

Like I said in the post, it was the lyrics more than anything that really engaged me in this song. Some people don't care for lyrics, some don't care for the music they're surrounded in. Difference of preference. In any case, don't think I'm bothered or disheartened by the comments - if I was, I wouldn't have a blog :p

And starting next week, I'm gonna stop hyping up the songs I post - I'm gonna do it Abe Lincoln style, and say 'oh, it might not be as good as last week ' or something ;)

 

Oh, and I forgot to say that my experience was a little different with the song as I first heard it performed live in a setting that felt fairly intimate. But even so, I never caught on to the lyrics till I started listening to the EP. So I dunno - maybe you just need to go see her live :p

And you're welcome, g. I'd probably say the same thing about Lullaby - it's got some amazing lyrics. And I'm a sucker for a storyteller, what can I say? :)

 

I actually agree with those who think it's formulaic. But 'pop' by definition is formulaic (to different degrees, of course) - and Switchfoot, too, are quite often formulaic. I figured that needn't be bad in itself, if the song makes best use of an existing formula. I believe in many ways it's best to forget everything else you've listened to in the past while assessing music - that's how it was intended to be heard - so it boils down to whether it's honest or not, not whether it sounds like something else. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying originality counts for nothing, it definitely does - but sometimes we can (including me) get too wrapped up with drawing comparisons that we miss the bus.

PS: Thanks for those recommendations, Kim. *takes note*

 

Its awsome that your supporting the smaller local unisigned artists Phil. People dont relize how many good bands are out there that havent been signed and no one really knows about. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SCENE!

 

^^
And read PASTE magazine!!

 

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Good points, Phil and Arpit. :D About Switchfoot being formulaic, shhh... 'people' might hear you. ;D The things is, Switchfoot's formula works well with me -- so I agree with both of you that yes, music can be quite subjective. :)

 

Haha I love how this post turned into a commentary on pop music. Glad to know that I'm able to engage minds (and perhaps preconceived notions :p) via this section! I think this post has generated more comments than any of the other MOTW's except for the one where Heather wanted to start an Arpit fan club... umm, yeah. :)

 

Oh, one thing I can say good about her, the album artwork is wonderful! I love it... it looks like candy. (And as Phil pointed out last night, she has a song where she confesses to being a candy freak, so that's pretty neat.)

 

Yeah I like that cover too - it's good stuff - another thing I'm a sucker for is good artwork! :p

 

do I sense an inflated-something, Arpit...? :P
just kidding.

@joel, thanks man, though these MOTW posts aren't mine - it's arpit supporting his local..er..global scene.

@kim, are you serious...about reading PASTE?

btw, I like "Lullaby". And so do you Vicky.

Oh and I thought she has an impressive list of influences: Ani DiFranco, Pink Floyd, Jack Kerouac, Neil Young, Syd Barrett, Jeff Buckley, the color yellow, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Ayrton Senna, Pinback, The Kinks, Sparklehorse, Juana Molina, love lost-love found.

 

Yeah! Nice little mag that covers some under the radar stuff as well as some of the majors. Plus, each issue comes with a sampler CD of great music, and quarterly a DVD of music videos. And it's fairly cheap....current issue on newstand is $5.99 or something.

 

Lol - do you work for Paste? :p

I actually prefer Filter - but maybe I'm biased :)

 

I tend to agree with all that everyone's saying about music being very subjective. But I think that's the beauty of it all, that it can mean entirely different things to different people, that's what makes it so special.
About the MOTW, I think that overall, for me at least, the lyrics make up for what I think is a an okay melody. There's very few songs that I hear for the first time whose melody and lyrics strike a chord with me, this one's the same; the words are beautiful, but I think the melody'll take while to grow on me.

 

Well, glad you could appreciate the lyrics!

 

I'm going to give this one an honest try, from the lyrics I don't know if I'll buy it. But see, I've discovered you have to give songs a listen. Sometimes the lyrics aren't enough to tell if you'll like it or not, because you have to put a voice behind them.

Phil I agree with you, female voices are judged far harder than male voices.

 

Haha, no, I don't work for PASTE, but maybe they should hire me :-)

I like Filter too, but so far, PASTE has been cheaper, and we were getting out of debt. But we just paid off the last of it a few days ago, so now maybe I can read both!!

 

Haha awesome... yeah I like Filter a little better... besides, Norah Jones on an indie music mag? Hmm, not sure about that one.

 

I like the melody. The lyrics are nice. But I'm not a fan of her voice. I guess I'm one of those people who is biased against female singers. There are only about three that I really like. There's just something about them that grates on my nerves...

Since we're talking about female vocalists and breaking out of formulas, I would recommend checking out a band called Hope it the Thing With Feathers. Not only do I enjoy the female vocals, but their musical style is also very original. It's good stuff. (myspace.com/hopeisthethingwithfeathers).

But thank you for doing this, Arpit. I like most of the songs you put up. And I didn't dislike this one; I just probably won't be buying the album. :)

 

Haha you're welcome - you can't win everytime. I just gotta remember: when in doubt, post a Switchfoot song :p

 

^don't you dare... :p

i'll have to check that band out, jill.

kim, the paste reviewer who reviewed "Oh! Gravity." actually blogged about switchFeed (in response to my comments on her review) and left us a comment to alert us about it.

 

Hehe - I was debating honestly whether I should put up this song or 'Learning to Breathe' :p

 

Cool! I actually havent read the past 3-4 issues since my subscription ran out, and I didn't get around to renewing it.

Oh, and PASTE is not really an indie music mag. It is just a mag that highlights what it calls "Signs of Life" in music, art, and culture. It takes in indie and not....cause some of the majors are still making great tunes. That's one of the reasons that I like it so much.

But Arpit, keep posting stuff like this cause it is interesting. I like checking out new stuff even if it doesn't really resonate my natural frequencies.

 

^sweet. i'll have to check them out some more.

arpit, i feel like doing this weekend's MOTW, just cause i have a great new album/tune in mind. is that cool? now that your name is synonymous with this column and all, i have to take your permission... :p

 

Lol - I don't know if my name's synonymous with it, but sure - I'm actually headed up to the Bay Area for the weekend, so it works out perfectly :p

Looking forward to it!

 

thank you, arpit metha, for posting that artist! It may be due to the fact that i am a sentimental girl who will listen to daydreamy music in any form, but nevertheless....... i really enjoyed Priscilla Ahn's songs, 'specially "lullaby" it has memory-making capabilities! thanks.

 

You're very welcome!