posted 10/10/2008 (Fri) @ 08:00 am
>>> Music Reviews
What Bird - Good Night, Good Riddance (2008)
Folk Rock / Electronic / Indie
Take a drive away from the city
- Here Tomorrow
- Home to You
- Highway Song
- Under the Milky Way
- New Again
- Rivers and Canyons
- Fallen Things
- Perfect Faith
- Take Us Back
- Powerlines
“Late night driving music” means different things to different folks.
Some prefer nuclear-powered subwoofers on their Toyota, to really let people know that they’re into Tech N9ne.
Others enjoy a good drive-by “Panama”-ing of the old folks home/neighborhood.
Then there’s the school of What Bird: those who hear, in touring fluorescent-bathed city lanes and pitch black country roads, something “dark, kinetic, peaceful, yet unsettling.”
Bereft of chart-topping irritants like pitch correction or overcompression, this earthy acoustic/electronic duo, comprised of Julia Harrison and Winston Harrison, rushes into the brain with subtlety. Electronic elements beef up Julia’s already worldly vocals, guitar and flute playing. Dosed with simple, rhythmically satisfying drumwork, What Bird birth a brand of folky indie rock which is soothing, yet propulsive at the same time, coasting, like a car and its human driver might, down a freeway.
Restrained performances are integral to the record—a pop record, at its core. Sparse, but right-on-the-money instrumentation is slave to Julia’s vocal melodies. The dribbles of bouncy guitar and plunky, programmed drums which open “Highway Song” conjure a blur of white and yellow stripes. “Have you ever known a pure heart?” Julia’s swelling-to-burst, bittersweet chorus asks. Good Night, Good Riddance maintains this dark, moody, rolling pace for most of its runtime, but does go a tad more upbeat (at least musically) with “Fallen Things” and its plinks of warm Rhodes piano.
Then there’s the immediate eyebrow and bar raiser of deciding to cover “Under the Milky Way.” Donnie Darko fans will be well-aware of the original The Church song’s hypnotic and haunting pull. Given the past track record of piss poor covers of this tune, I wasn’t expecting much. But although What Bird obviously forego the smoky, hypnotic baritone vocals of the original, and slow and soften it to their own ends, their rendition is every bit as empyrean and otherworldly (albeit lacking the stardiving synth-bagpipe solo…). Another grand slam for the duo from Nashville.
Sometimes it’s hard to locate genuine breaths of fresh air, but these folks qualify. Fans of everyone from Sheryl Crow to Everything But the Girl can find something to like here, and graveyard shift commuter-poets will find their car stereos have found a new best friend in Good Night, Good Riddance. On their promise of perfect late-night driving music, What Bird deliver.
Links
Sample or buy @ CDbaby (physical CD or downloadable MP3)
Myspace
Tags: best of 2008 candidates, driving music, electronica, folk, genre blending, indie, under the milky way covers, what bird
