Paloma Faith

Pardonnez-moi!  I've been terribly absent from everything. Life got away from me. I'm grabbing it for now to belatedly bring you June's artist of the month, Paloma Faith!

Paloma Faith is an English songstress and songwriter of whom I can't get enough these days. I first heard of Paloma when she was a panelist on a show that I shan't admit I sometimes watch. I was entranced by her zany personality and clothing, and was extremely desirous to know more about her. I think I might've even watched her on another show (NMTB, this time) before actually listening to her music, but it's possible I listened to a couple of her songs in the interim between show-watchings. (I can no longer remember.)


A few weeks ago, she released her new album (Fall To Grace), but you must excuse me for I am still stuck on her first effort from 2009, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful.  I don't know why I used the word "effort" - in my mind that sort of implies it fell short of some undefined mark. It certainly didn't! (Er, doesn't!) Her music is pop/soul that's a little more mainstream than my usual far-off-the-beaten-path choices, but that's not to say her music is akin to the general tripe that shoots so shockingly up the charts. Her songs and whole being are very theatrical, which is hardly surprising considering she is also an actress and has held the various jobs that are theatrical in nature.

My favourite song off Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful is 'New York' - a song that is a plea to a lover whose left for 'another lady' with a slight twist from the usual. I can't stop listening to this, as it combines beauty and catchy-ness into an irresistible combination.


Listen:


(Supplemental link: Watch a clip Paloma [and Noel Fielding!] being adorable on Never Mind the Buzzcocks here.)

Polly Scattergood

I had May's artist of the month picked out before April's. True story. The artist in question is Polly Scattergood, and what happened was this: I bought her album at the beginning of April and fell head over heels in love with it. But I knew all along I would wait till May to make her artist of the month. I have to become acclimated, you see, and make sure my favourite song doesn't all the sudden become my least favourite or something.

Polly Scattergood a singer/songwriter from my the grand old UK (born in Essex, but is now living in London, I believe). Her first album, Polly Scattergood, was released in 2009, and she is working on her second at the moment. Her music is hard to explain... I'm not sure what genre to assign to it. Wikipedia says "Indie pop",  "Experimental", and "Alternative rock". Sure, why not? Why do we spend so much time obsessed with genre anyway? (In my mind I'm throwing my hands around like a self-righteous philosophy student. Ha.)

A criticism I've heard of her album is she bleeds her heartache all over it. Heck, that's why I love it. I'm not even going to pull the female card when I say that. I love the emotion she portrays with her voice, her lyrics, her instrumentation.

My favourite song of hers is 'Please Don't Touch', which was my introduction to her music. I ran into the music video on youtube and took immediate interest. Very soon afterward I decided that, yes, I was a big fan.

Listen to 'Please Don't Touch':


 (Supplemental links: another favourite is 'Breathe In Breathe Out' which you can listen to here.)


This post is disjointed. Sorry about that. I got overcome by my hovering depression while in the middle of writing it and had to walk away. I'm back now - more stable, but not very focused. But I've introduced you to the wonder that is Polly Scattergood, and that is all that matters!

No One Can Hear You Cry

I think I can just squeeze in another post before April ends! It's on my to-do list, so I better do it, right? I'm extremely strict about such things.... *snickers*

I've been really digging obscure 60s and 70s music again, so appropriately I'm posting a song from an old favourite: Susan Christie.

Susan Christie is yet another talented woman who is terribly obscure and hard to gather information on. I do know she was with a band called The Highlanders, but it was her solo recording of the novelty song 'I Love Onions' with which she gained some footing in the musical world.

She then made her first and only album: Paint a Lady. The album was released in 1970. Or it would have been, at least, had the record company not done what they did, which was limit the pressings of her album to a very small amount, because they had no faith in the commercial possibilities of her material. (I've heard there were only three vinyls made!)

I am amazed Paint a Lady ever got reissued. Amazed, but grateful, I must say. The album is brief, only eight tracks long. As far as I know, all the material is original except for her cover of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky'. Of course, this album does contain the nine minute 'Yesterday Where's My Mind?' An acid folk number that I must confess I've never made it all the way through. (It has a frightening intro!) Of course, I haven't tried to listen to it in years; I might be able to handle it better now. :P

Her songs are full of loneliness, which is quite apparent on my three favourites from the album: 'Rainy Day', 'Paint a Lady', and 'No One Can Hear You Cry'. Being a teenaged girl, perhaps that is why I love all three of these songs. I'm a sucker for a good song about, well, sad things.

The song 'Paint a Lady' is perhaps more indicative of what she is capable of, but I have a soft spot for the song 'No One Can Hear You Cry' so that is the one I'm posting. (But you'll notice I've included 'Paint a Lady' as a bonus on the playlist, if you want further listening!)

This post was actually surprisingly easy to write! I though it would take much longer. (Using the new Blogger was a pain, though.)

Marj Snyder

As the song goes, "April, come she will"... and before I'm quite ready for her. As usual, I deliberated over what artist to make artist of the month, before deciding the only artist I felt like raving over was Marj Snyder.

Marj Snyder... I confess, I don't know much about her. She was a little-known singer-songwriter who released several albums in the 70s. Though few knew of her, those who did were blessed by her music.

The bio for her at last.fm states simply: "Hippy lady from California who loves that God." Ha! It's hard to tell whether or not it was a fan who penned that gem; but yes, Marj was from California and she loved "that God". (Read: she was/is a Christian.)
I can't state positively how many records she released, but I know for sure of two: her 1971 album, A Time of Peace, and her 1972 album, My Lifetime Now. (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Marj was only 17 when A Time of Peace was released.)

I can't remember exactly how or when I came across the music of Marj Snyder. I think it was last summer, when I somehow stumbled across her song, 'God', which is from the album A Time of Peace. Her gentle style and beautiful, thoughtful lyrics grabbed my attention, and the more I listened to the song, the more I grew to appreciate it.
Sadly, except for the song 'God' and another song called 'I Am the Light', I've not heard any more from A Time of Peace. (Ah, the woes of loving obscure music!)

But semi-recently, I was able to find a download of her 1972 album, My Lifetime Now. While it does contain a regrettable foray into country music ('Knees Knocking') and Southern gospel ('For Those Tears I Died') and the inevitable 'Amazing Grace', My Lifetime Now is a fine album. (For the genre complaints, the songs themselves are alright, I'm just not a fan of those two genres.) My Lifetime Now is certainly a million steps above the cookie cutter "Christian music" of today.

I'm posting two songs today; the first is 'Chicago / Walk By My Window' from My Lifetime Now. (Which technically is two songs, but they segue into each other and they were put on the same track in the version I downloaded.) Unlike the rest of the album, they aren't religious. But they are pieces of her life wrapped in the packaging of lovely folk music, much like the second song, which is the aforementioned 'God' (a song of more religious nature, obviously - but definitely worth a listen, even if you're not interested in the spiritual side of life.)




(Supplemental links: Another favourite from My Lifetime Now is the song 'I'm Dying'. I love the pure anguish of this song, which you can listen to here, if you so desire.
Here is the blog I downloaded the song 'God' from and the blog I downloaded the album 'My Lifetime Now' from. Also, one of Marj Snyder's song is on the compilation Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon, which can be bought on amazon.)

Coming Up

Nikki, a sweet new reader of mine, has given me an award! Thank you so much, dear!


Here are some instructions:
1. Nominate 15 others for the award and inform them with a comment on each of their blogs.
2. Create a post for the Versatile Blogger Award.
3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
5. In the same post, include this set of rules.

Seven Random Things About Moi:

1. I drink my daily coffee black. Sometimes I'll have cream or sugar, but not often. I like it black. I'm prouder of this fact than I should be.

2. I have library cards for two different libraries, and I'm thinking about getting a third. (I'm not collecting them, no. It's just that even with two library systems at my fingertips, there are still many books I want to read that aren't in either of their collections.)

3. When I was a young girl, I aspired to be just like Madeline (from the books by Ludwig Bemelmans). Mainly, I wanted to be as brave as her. Not sure how well that worked out, but I do attribute my Francophility to those books.

4. Due to the fact I have no life, I read somewhere over 440 books last year. (441 according to my goodreads, but there were some re-reads that weren't entered.)

5. I would rather clean toilets for money than babysit. (I've done both, yes, and I prefer the toilets.)

6. I hate eating in public. I'll eat in restaurants, but at parties or other gatherings - no way. We affectionately call it my "public eating disorder".

7. I often professed a desire towards a medical career as a child, but somewhere in the transition from childhood to teenage-hood, I became one of the most squeamish people ever. (Not squeamish when it comes to cleaning toilets, evidently. :P But if someone starts describing a surgery or something - ugh!)

[I should tag 15 people in this space, but if you haven't noticed, I usually skip that step and say if any of my readers would like to do this on their blog, they are welcome to do so, please!]


To make up for my lacklustre facts, and to make this a music-related post, I am posting one of my favourite music videos: 'Coming Up' by Paul McCartney! I've been listening to a lot of my darling Paulie lately, and I've been meaning to post this video for a long time - so right now feels as good a time as any!

'Coming Up' is from Paul's 1980 album McCartney II. The quirky music video features Paul dressed up as ten different people (including a portrayal of himself circa 1963), and his wife Linda dressed up as two.

And sorry - this song will most likely get stuck in your head...