A favor to a friend -
Jun. 21st, 2006 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgShe wants feedback, and anyone who asks me for it...well.
Because I was brought up well by the Home Team (accept no substitutes)*, I hereby present you with both a review and a critique. Because, as I was taught - you never offer your opinion in a review; that's not the place for it. A critique is where you pull something part, look at it and say WOW or WHOA about it.
There are a lot of folks on the FL who know![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cadhla. There are a lot of folks who've never read any of her entries, even when I've recommended her every time I've mentioned her. She's one of those people you enjoy knowing, as much as you're allowed - she's of general good cheer, fair as it is possible to be (even when going WTF over a convention sniping) and genuinely likes her audiences. She writes prolifically, often in tightly structured poetry and lyrical verse. She also does artwork; she did a set of icons as commission pieces once - and I see a number of them still in circulation. They are much like her - happy, light-hearted and never takes anything so seriously it would die from smothering - but she does pay attention to the details. Oh very yes.
She's also an avid filker...which leads us to this point.
I knew she sang, I knew she wrote music and was often happiest in a room of people who loved doing just the same. A testament to this was her election to Toastmaster at OVFF last year. As such, a performance was in store.
I wasn't there. But a whole buncha people were. I am given to understand that it was a Once In A Lifetime. While filkers, as a bunch, could live on only cassette recordings alone - when there's enough interest, there could be a CD pressing!
And so it was.
I missed the original order group; too broke. When the opportunity to get in on the second wave came, so to speak, I jumped at it.
I really wanted to give this the attention it was due; I finally threw up my hands and took it in the car this week. I don't know any of the material the filk refers to - I know nothing about Martin's Passage, or any of the other references. None of them.
So I have to listen to the material - and take it in as it's presented, lyrics and music - on its own merits. You want to pay attention, under those circumstances, right?
The Review
Pretty Little Dead Girl - Seannan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005 is a set of acoustic recordings done live in front of a very cooperative audience as a command performance capping a major filk convention in Ohio in 2005. Lyrically intricate, the the melodies capture your attention as you can hear every word sung clearly and succinctly; the music rises and falls as easily as a gentle breeze and you find yourself drawn into a mood that would be just at much at home in a nightclub setting as seated around a campfire. Recommended.
Okay. Gloves off.
This was a live album?! Holy chrome. That has to be the cleanest live performance I've ever heard recorded. No ambient noise to mention. Seriously.
The Good, first.
I've read the lyrics, I can't tell you how many times. I've read about how the music was coming together. Actually hearing it for the first time was a treat. Seannan has a talent for alliteration that just works. For a lot of people, it's annoying - in her case, it makes the songs tie up in neat little packages. Add a fervent desire for harmonies and there you go. I couldn't help but wonder if she shouldn't find a group of people locally who could take the instrumental parts and backup, and stop driving a desk and begin doing gigs around town instead. Work up some covers of the popular tunes, but sneak these in from time to time. Promise, people would begin asking for them. She has an able singing voice - distinct, pleasant and well-trained enough to trill and lilt through some of the toughest lyrical runs.
You're instantly drawn in and entertained. You want to hear the end of the song like you await the end of a favorite story. The happy ending, the last little flip of a note.
I understand she's working on a studio album - that's going to be something worth waiting for.
Because....
The Bad.
This was a one-time, one-pass live performance - and the strongest, most intricate musical pieces done at the end? I'm looking forward to hearing them when the musicians are fresh. I really thought I was imagining things, until I played the first track against the last three. Whether it was fatigue, relief at getting through most of the previous pieces or just plain having Too Much Fun?
"Pretty Little Dead Girl" needs another recording. I really would like to hear it as the lead piece, frankly. I loved "This Is My Town," I really really liked "Sycamore Tree," but setting this frothy, happy piece at the end? It needed more Energy, with the big E. If you were there, you probably had plenty of it ambient - in a recording, it's noticeable. (Not BAD, mind. Noticeable.)
And as nimble as Seannan's voice is, I began to loose lyrics towards the end. Music passing too fast through too many syllables.
It's unfair to judge the album by this one deficiency, however. Nobody miked the performance or recorded it with the intention it would ever be pressed to disk; the fact it exists at all is a happy accident. When I listened to it with that in mind, I just sat back and was amazed that it's as good, as polished as it is.
A fine, FINE first effort. People are going to look back in some year from now, and be very pleased indeed that the pressing will be there to listen to. Because as good as this is? Seannan is close to half my age - she's got a lot more where this came from and has the years to do some really incredible things in them.
So there.
Seannan has made "Sycamore Tree" available for download over at Filk Archive (go there anyway, it's bright, shiny and full of wonderful things; registration is not all that and a side of fries, c'mon!), search for "Sycamore Tree." If you want to hear the rest of the album? Order one for yourself. She mails the discs out by hand-carrying the orders on her back riding BART, for crying out loud. That's love for you.
And it sounds fabulous in the car.
*The Home Team? Anyone who remembers the old Starsky & Hutch Letterzine can tell you about the Home Team. I was a punkass of 19 when they schooled me, lemme tellya.
Because I was brought up well by the Home Team (accept no substitutes)*, I hereby present you with both a review and a critique. Because, as I was taught - you never offer your opinion in a review; that's not the place for it. A critique is where you pull something part, look at it and say WOW or WHOA about it.
There are a lot of folks on the FL who know
cadhla. There are a lot of folks who've never read any of her entries, even when I've recommended her every time I've mentioned her. She's one of those people you enjoy knowing, as much as you're allowed - she's of general good cheer, fair as it is possible to be (even when going WTF over a convention sniping) and genuinely likes her audiences. She writes prolifically, often in tightly structured poetry and lyrical verse. She also does artwork; she did a set of icons as commission pieces once - and I see a number of them still in circulation. They are much like her - happy, light-hearted and never takes anything so seriously it would die from smothering - but she does pay attention to the details. Oh very yes.She's also an avid filker...which leads us to this point.
I knew she sang, I knew she wrote music and was often happiest in a room of people who loved doing just the same. A testament to this was her election to Toastmaster at OVFF last year. As such, a performance was in store.
I wasn't there. But a whole buncha people were. I am given to understand that it was a Once In A Lifetime. While filkers, as a bunch, could live on only cassette recordings alone - when there's enough interest, there could be a CD pressing!
And so it was.
I missed the original order group; too broke. When the opportunity to get in on the second wave came, so to speak, I jumped at it.
I really wanted to give this the attention it was due; I finally threw up my hands and took it in the car this week. I don't know any of the material the filk refers to - I know nothing about Martin's Passage, or any of the other references. None of them.
So I have to listen to the material - and take it in as it's presented, lyrics and music - on its own merits. You want to pay attention, under those circumstances, right?
The Review
Pretty Little Dead Girl - Seannan McGuire and Friends Live at OVFF 2005 is a set of acoustic recordings done live in front of a very cooperative audience as a command performance capping a major filk convention in Ohio in 2005. Lyrically intricate, the the melodies capture your attention as you can hear every word sung clearly and succinctly; the music rises and falls as easily as a gentle breeze and you find yourself drawn into a mood that would be just at much at home in a nightclub setting as seated around a campfire. Recommended.
Okay. Gloves off.
This was a live album?! Holy chrome. That has to be the cleanest live performance I've ever heard recorded. No ambient noise to mention. Seriously.
The Good, first.
I've read the lyrics, I can't tell you how many times. I've read about how the music was coming together. Actually hearing it for the first time was a treat. Seannan has a talent for alliteration that just works. For a lot of people, it's annoying - in her case, it makes the songs tie up in neat little packages. Add a fervent desire for harmonies and there you go. I couldn't help but wonder if she shouldn't find a group of people locally who could take the instrumental parts and backup, and stop driving a desk and begin doing gigs around town instead. Work up some covers of the popular tunes, but sneak these in from time to time. Promise, people would begin asking for them. She has an able singing voice - distinct, pleasant and well-trained enough to trill and lilt through some of the toughest lyrical runs.
You're instantly drawn in and entertained. You want to hear the end of the song like you await the end of a favorite story. The happy ending, the last little flip of a note.
I understand she's working on a studio album - that's going to be something worth waiting for.
Because....
The Bad.
This was a one-time, one-pass live performance - and the strongest, most intricate musical pieces done at the end? I'm looking forward to hearing them when the musicians are fresh. I really thought I was imagining things, until I played the first track against the last three. Whether it was fatigue, relief at getting through most of the previous pieces or just plain having Too Much Fun?
"Pretty Little Dead Girl" needs another recording. I really would like to hear it as the lead piece, frankly. I loved "This Is My Town," I really really liked "Sycamore Tree," but setting this frothy, happy piece at the end? It needed more Energy, with the big E. If you were there, you probably had plenty of it ambient - in a recording, it's noticeable. (Not BAD, mind. Noticeable.)
And as nimble as Seannan's voice is, I began to loose lyrics towards the end. Music passing too fast through too many syllables.
It's unfair to judge the album by this one deficiency, however. Nobody miked the performance or recorded it with the intention it would ever be pressed to disk; the fact it exists at all is a happy accident. When I listened to it with that in mind, I just sat back and was amazed that it's as good, as polished as it is.
A fine, FINE first effort. People are going to look back in some year from now, and be very pleased indeed that the pressing will be there to listen to. Because as good as this is? Seannan is close to half my age - she's got a lot more where this came from and has the years to do some really incredible things in them.
So there.
Seannan has made "Sycamore Tree" available for download over at Filk Archive (go there anyway, it's bright, shiny and full of wonderful things; registration is not all that and a side of fries, c'mon!), search for "Sycamore Tree." If you want to hear the rest of the album? Order one for yourself. She mails the discs out by hand-carrying the orders on her back riding BART, for crying out loud. That's love for you.
And it sounds fabulous in the car.
*The Home Team? Anyone who remembers the old Starsky & Hutch Letterzine can tell you about the Home Team. I was a punkass of 19 when they schooled me, lemme tellya.
