Sharon Van Etten is Jersey-born and Brooklyn-based, an NPR-approved indie folk rock singer-songwriter who’s been performing for a decade and has released four well-received albums. I’d never heard of her.
This moving piano ballad is a nice introduction to Van Etten’s work. It has a Tori Amos feel to it but less avant garde, with a little more of a 60s folk influence.
In a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, the magazine’s editors took advantage of the Adele hysteria to highlight about a dozen emerging artists with a similar sound and sensibility.
I’ll showcase the songs of a few of those artists this week and give my first impressions.
This isn’t a genre I generally like so I’m curious to see if any of these women capture my attention out of the gate.
Amid all of Kanye West’s silliness and tabloid shenanigans, it’s easy to forget that he can lay down some fascinating music. Today’s Random iTunes track, ‘Blame Game,’ is a great example.
An emotional climax of West’s excellent 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, ‘Blame Game’ chronicles the end of a relationship with a mix of jealousy, name-calling, self-loathing and bravado. And it’s all topped off with a hilarious Chris Rock monologue riffing on the song’s themes.
‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ is a traditional protest song typical of Bob Dylan’s first few albums. This one appears on The Times They Are A-Changin’, Dylan’s most socially and politically charged record, which he released when he was just 22.
The song chronicles the true story of racist tobacco farm heir William Zantzinger (Dylan changed the spelling) who assaulted a 51-year-old black maid with a cane, after which she died. Zantzinger was charged with first-degree murder but ended up serving only six months. This was in early 1963.
I’m still in awe of the gaudy stats amassed by Elton John’s revisiting of ‘Candle in the Wind’ in the wake of Princess Diana’s death. As I mentioned in this week’s post about Adele’s ‘Hello,’ ‘Candle in the Wind (Goodbye England’s Rose)’ is the best-selling single of all-time.
Strictly speaking, it’s the best-selling single since the 1950s, when the singles charts began, but the Guinness Book of World Records gives the overall title to Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas,’ released in 1942.
