Salon's Wed A.M. Downloads • 7/07/04

[DudeAsInCool]

In this week's Wednesday Morning Downloads, Thomas Bartlett takes a harsh look at at American Idol star Fantasia Barrino's new pop release and offers up the following free downloads/here are some excerpts from his review:

"At Least That's What You Said," Wilco, from "A Ghost Is Born"

... if you only want to download one track, take the first one, "At Least That's What You Said." Even though Tweedy gets off some choice lines ("You thought it was cute/ For you to kiss/ My purple black eye/ And even though I caught it from you/ I still think we're serious), it's a fairly unmemorable song until his guitar takes over a few minutes in. From there on out, it's bliss. (iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch)

"Red Night," Pure Horsehair (Garrett Devoe), demo

...Garrett Devoe's fingerpicking strikes a similar balance on this song, and like (Bert) Jansch he mixes British and American folk styles seamlessly....This simple song, with its spare, poetic lyrics, taken from a dream, evokes for me a feeling of peace as well as a feeling that it comes from a great distance away, whether in time or in space I don't know. Devoe's singing, both fragile and resonant, is perfectly non-demonstrative, with all the ease of someone singing to himself. There are a number of other songs available for free download in theaudio section of Devoe's Web page, all worth hearing. He seems to be basically unknown at the moment, but I very much doubt that that will last. Free Download: "Red Night"

"Venus," Low, from "A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-sides & Rarities"

In celebration of their 10th anniversary as a band, Low (to my knowledge the only great Mormon band in the world, but please e-mail me if you know others -- I'm interested) has released this box set of B-sides and rarities. And there's a lot to celebrate. That simple sound they came up with 10 years ago -- glacial tempos, infrequent chord changes, spare snare and high-hat drum parts, perfectly tuned vocal harmonies held perfectly still (brief glimpses of eternity), and an overall aesthetic of austerity -- has been refined and tinkered with but remains essentially unchanged. And it doesn't need to be changed, because it's perfect. Luckily, they've made one track from the collection, the unusually jaunty "Venus," previously available only on an out-of-print 7-inch from 1997, available for free download. Free Download: "Venus"

"Golden," A Girl Called Eddy, from "A Girl Called Eddy"

When this song by Erin Moran, aka A Girl Called Eddy, appeared on the Anti Records Web site a few weeks ago I downloaded it, listened to about 30 seconds of overwrought, cheesy piano pop, and then threw it in the trash. I decided to give it another shot a week later, remembering what a consistently great roster Anti has been building up (Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Joe Henry, Tricky, etc.), and reading that not only were Robert Smith and Jarvis Cocker fans of A Girl Called Eddy, but that former Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley had produced the record. Hawley's slick production is actually one of the worst parts about this track, though -- all the sounds are bright and harsh, and the sudden rock bombast on the chorus is ridiculously tasteless and feels like a crass attempt to make the song radio-friendly. Why listen, then? For the melody, which is McCartney-esque both in its slowly unfolding lyricism and its innate cheesiness.... Free Download: "Golden"

"Both Sides Now," Joni Mitchell, from "Both Sides Now"

As a rule I try to feature just recently released music in this column, or older music only if it's free. But I need to make an exception for this song, from Joni Mitchell's 2000 album, "Both Sides Now." I can't say that the idea of this record was all that appealing to me -- covering standards and long-ago hits accompanied by a full orchestra (with soprano saxophone solos! Ick!) sounds like the sort of thing aging pop stars do when they run out of ideas. But it's been a long time since something hit me as powerfully as Mitchell's voice does on this recording, which I heard for the first time last week. It kept me going through a difficult week of touring. Mitchell wrote and recorded "Both Sides Now" nearly 40 years ago, but I find this new version far more moving. ...(iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch)

You can read the full article and get your free downloads (after viewing a Human Rights Ad) at Salon:

http://www.salon.com/ent/music/review/wmd/2004/07/07/wilco/