Andrea Digs [Insert Artist/Song Here] - July '07

(This will be a new feature where when I discover a new artist or song that I absolutely love, I will share it here.)

Today's new discovery is the band Radical Face, and more specifically their song "Welcome Home". I was perusing my thirty-five or so music blogs that I weekly check in to, and in about the 5th blog I discovered this track. I instantly halted, I mean it seriously stopped me in my tracks when this song was playing, and I only moved after the song was over (and that was to play it again). I headed over to iTunes and sampled the rest of the album and was so excited by what I heard that I just bought the whole thing. I would classify it as an impulse buy, definitely, but I'm finding that my impulses are actually doing pretty damn well. The album has turned out to be a goldmine of tracks and I'm so thrilled I found them.

A little history of this group is that it's fronted by Ben Cooper, who was also the lead singer of Electric President (also another pretty great band). Cooper played every instrument and recorded this album himself in his Jacksonville, Florida studio. Radical Face's album "Ghost" is the first release, and if you mercilessly threatened to beat me up until I could describe the genre it fits in, I would easily get out of that death grip, take you down first and then give you a description. And my thoughts would be eerily similar to the one that's in iTunes (i.e. They described it perfectly and I would be a fool to top it). So I'll just pull out some lines that I found to be accurate in labeling this music.

"Ben Cooper has a few names he works under; as Radical Face, he creates an album that's possibly one of the best debut takes on whatever the word Americana is supposed to represent in the 21st century.... Ghost is something that lives up to its name - a strange, murky presence that sometimes is not entirely there, but in the best, most suggestive way. Cooper's singing is understated but sweetly calming, a gentle glaze that recalls the not-quite-shoegaze of the many early-'90s U.S. acts that rejected grunge and lo-fi for another approach. Meanwhile, the music is equally cool but hardly cold, a carefully detailed combination of instrumentation that lightly references everything from late-'60s Beach Bos to late-'90s Mogwai in its cinematic scope - banjos sit well against the building drums, strings suddenly appear to add piercing emphasis, and there's a hint here and there of Dave Fridmann's full-on widescreen production style..."

I would add that while Ben Cooper's voice is a little bit limited in range and has some nasality, he works these songs to fit his voice and it still turns out to be good music.

So I hope you enjoy it as I much as I do!

Radical Face: "Welcome Home"
Radical Face: "Glory"

And some other songs that I am currently into:

Stars: "In Our Bedroom After the War" - The last 2 minutes are my favorite. I'm all about the buildup and grandiose style of music.

Jean-Michel Bernard : "If You Rescue Me (Chanson des chats)" - Quirky film (The Science of Sleep) with a strong soundtrack. I always listen to this when trying to fall sleep or need a little calming.

Scott Simons: "Umbrella" - I sort of half-enjoy the Rihanna one, but I just can't fully commit to her version as it grates on the nerves with all of the "eh eh eh" thrown around. Mr. Simons, I think, does a great cover of the song by keeping it tempered with a softer sound. Simple pop at its best. Plus to me the male voice makes most things better.