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March 27, 2005

keren ann :: nolita

(buy)

I, and probably a lot of other people who pay attention to music writing, have Sasha Frere-Jones to thank for introducing me to Keren Ann. It hasn't been a life-changing experience, but she does make a pretty delicious, mysterious variety of polite coffeehouse music. It seems like S F-J, who is now the chief pop music critic for the New Yorker, has been working to singlehandedly introduce her to a broader American audience, especially through this article, which contained a hilarious deconstruction of her appeal:

Keren Ann’s music is like that view: a cliché stood up straight and done so well that you remember why it became a cliché. Every college student who feels a little sad and sits down with an acoustic guitar to summon beauty and form hopes, whether or not she knows it, to come up with one of Keren Ann’s songs. This, unfortunately, is not what usually happens. Right now, at a café somewhere, a guitar player is pouring out his acoustic vision in front of helpless diners who, bereft of legal protection, are silently praying for the robots to take over. Keren Ann doesn’t make you wish for these things.

His push coincided with her decision to move away from singing entirely in French, as on her first two albums, and begin writing most of her lyrics in English. You wouldn't know it's not her first language.

I haven't heard those first two French discs; I started with Not Going Anyhwere, which was S F-J's top full-length of 2004. It was a deeply simple, lulling set of songs that plowed a straight-and-narrow melodic path - which is far too uncommon in intelligent folk-based music these days. It didn't make my own top 10 - or even 20 - but it was a disc to remember.

Nolita is, for lack of any other way to describe it, more sophisticated - which helps and hurts it. There are a lot more production atmospherics, and the songs are far more uneasy and cosmopolitan (and not just because there are several in French). The melodies and chord progressions often twist unexpectedly, as if they take more from the traditional music of Continental regions. In a way, there's a langorousness that belongs more in a sidewalk café than on a picnic blanket by a lake.

This is also the 798th soft, sophisticated record that will be compared to the self-titled The Velvet Underground LP, but a standard is a standard. We can also roll out the old Opal/Kendra Smith connection.

Sasha Frere-Jones has this disc at number 2 in his 2005 list. She gets a #10 nod from us, and probably won't survive the 20 by end of year. But, again, it'll be a disc to remember. And I'd put "L'Onde Amère" in a very short list of my favorite songs so far. I'm a sucker for that minor-major key change.

In addition to our offerings, there's another track at Salon's Audiofile blog. You need to get one of those free passes to get it.

L'Onde Amère (mp3)
The Greatest You Can Find (mp3)

Posted by borrowed_tunes at March 27, 2005 07:00 PM

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