A Star Is Born
Jun. 12th, 2011 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotNear unanimous opinion online that Dia Frampton had a Cher Lloyd a-star-is-born moment several days ago on NBC's The Voice with her twisting and half wispy, half guttural version of Kanye West's "Heartless." It continues to grow for me the more I listen, her voice scooping into the soil and rising up to what I'll describe incongruously as a dark alto trill, throat-grabbing, breathtaking. Much richer than Kanye's Autotuned original. Kanye's voice seemed aligned with the lyrics' analytical puzzlement - the song circling around among Yes, she really is cold and heartless, No, they say she's cold and heartless but they'll never understand our love, I don't understand our love, as you ditch me and then play me, and voices say "heartless." Dia lets the lyrics take care of all this while she goes for earth-flow and splatter and high-pitched reflection.
NBC runs online a little too soft, so I recommend you push the volume a little:
OK, but one thing that is truly bugging me is the narrative that Dia and NBC have concocted around her as the sweet, tremulous, bookish girl with stage fright, "a shy singer-songwriter and novelist" as Carson Daly calls her. I'm sure this is genuine, that she's nervous in the national eye and also courteous and warm and appreciative of advice and encouragement, both Cee-Lo and Xtina calling her cuddly - which is true of her look but not her singing, and Xtina definitely gave a twist to the sweet and cuddly adjectives, not meaning them unequivocally as praise, being glad that Dia was showing something beyond that, was showing claws. And of course Dia was showing something beyond that because she's been doing something beyond that for years, to a much smaller public but a public nonetheless, as lead singer of a loud-ass shemo band* that's been putting out albums since 2005, one of 'em even on a major label. It just seems real dishonest to leave out this information. I'm not saying the new Dia is categorically different from the old; when I reviewed Meg & Dia for Paper Thin Walls I thought "singer-songwriter" myself and said that they took the piano and poetry and lace-curtain sensibility of someone like Vanessa Carlton and did it on loud guitars instead. But what the Meg & Dia history tells us is that Dia's had plenty of experience mastering ambitious note transitions courtesy of sister Meg's songwriting, and has been singing loud on big scary stages for the last six years, including the Warped Tour, even if she is only 23. This doesn't mean she's lying about the stage fright and nerves; I still get stage fright whenever I post, and as Reba McEntire told her, there's the good stage fright, the fright that means you're excited and that what you do matters.
A similar story of shyness and fear is being told around sweet, 16-year-old Xenia, the other first-rate singer in the competition. And I worry that that story is going to work against Xenia, whose singing is not sweet; she's got an expressive scratch in her throat with which she'll deepen and darken soft pop. She brought more to "Price Tag" than had been in the original, and was even better on "Breakeven." Her style is already fully formed. Yet the news and blog commentary on her is that she's all fluttery and recessive. Maybe she is, but her art isn't. Yet I'm sure mentor Blake Shelton is going to be under pressure to dump her in favor of one of the two boring rockoid, countryoid guys in his bracket. Fortunately she's been getting iTunes action, second only to Dia, which speaks for something.
Interesting to me that the two shy girls with the "help me" demeanor are the two who've worked out the most original, uncompromising styles. Meanwhile, Frenchie and Beverly, two women strong in voice and look, sound generic on dance and soul. Fortunately I like strong-voiced generic dance and soul, and maybe musical character will be in evidence if they get to go on. Vicci has a bit more promise: Beverly covered Melissa Etheridge but it was Vicci on "Rolling In The Deep" who seemed to really really really want to be Melissa, and she's got something, some of Melissa's oomph, tearing through the sheetrock while conveying passionate vulnerability. Also, like Etheridge, whom I'm hardly a massive fan of, Vicci exerts too much control over her vocal whereabouts to REALLY do a Janis-flat-out-power-and-risk thing, to leap into a note as if it's her entire life and to throw the dice as to whether or not her vocalization of the note she's just put everything on is going to lead her into position to address the note that follows. Anyway, hope to get the chance to hear what else Vicci's got.
As for the guys, I don't know. Maybe men don't know how to be in the world anymore. Crisis of masculinity, blah blah blah. Jeff Jenkins dresses in godawful hayseed anti-fashion, but he's got a nice voice, a better vehicle for feeling than Scotty had over on Idol.
*[UPDATE: YouTube killed the Meg & Dia track I was linking, but it might well have been "Indiana." Here.]
NBC runs online a little too soft, so I recommend you push the volume a little:
OK, but one thing that is truly bugging me is the narrative that Dia and NBC have concocted around her as the sweet, tremulous, bookish girl with stage fright, "a shy singer-songwriter and novelist" as Carson Daly calls her. I'm sure this is genuine, that she's nervous in the national eye and also courteous and warm and appreciative of advice and encouragement, both Cee-Lo and Xtina calling her cuddly - which is true of her look but not her singing, and Xtina definitely gave a twist to the sweet and cuddly adjectives, not meaning them unequivocally as praise, being glad that Dia was showing something beyond that, was showing claws. And of course Dia was showing something beyond that because she's been doing something beyond that for years, to a much smaller public but a public nonetheless, as lead singer of a loud-ass shemo band* that's been putting out albums since 2005, one of 'em even on a major label. It just seems real dishonest to leave out this information. I'm not saying the new Dia is categorically different from the old; when I reviewed Meg & Dia for Paper Thin Walls I thought "singer-songwriter" myself and said that they took the piano and poetry and lace-curtain sensibility of someone like Vanessa Carlton and did it on loud guitars instead. But what the Meg & Dia history tells us is that Dia's had plenty of experience mastering ambitious note transitions courtesy of sister Meg's songwriting, and has been singing loud on big scary stages for the last six years, including the Warped Tour, even if she is only 23. This doesn't mean she's lying about the stage fright and nerves; I still get stage fright whenever I post, and as Reba McEntire told her, there's the good stage fright, the fright that means you're excited and that what you do matters.
A similar story of shyness and fear is being told around sweet, 16-year-old Xenia, the other first-rate singer in the competition. And I worry that that story is going to work against Xenia, whose singing is not sweet; she's got an expressive scratch in her throat with which she'll deepen and darken soft pop. She brought more to "Price Tag" than had been in the original, and was even better on "Breakeven." Her style is already fully formed. Yet the news and blog commentary on her is that she's all fluttery and recessive. Maybe she is, but her art isn't. Yet I'm sure mentor Blake Shelton is going to be under pressure to dump her in favor of one of the two boring rockoid, countryoid guys in his bracket. Fortunately she's been getting iTunes action, second only to Dia, which speaks for something.
Interesting to me that the two shy girls with the "help me" demeanor are the two who've worked out the most original, uncompromising styles. Meanwhile, Frenchie and Beverly, two women strong in voice and look, sound generic on dance and soul. Fortunately I like strong-voiced generic dance and soul, and maybe musical character will be in evidence if they get to go on. Vicci has a bit more promise: Beverly covered Melissa Etheridge but it was Vicci on "Rolling In The Deep" who seemed to really really really want to be Melissa, and she's got something, some of Melissa's oomph, tearing through the sheetrock while conveying passionate vulnerability. Also, like Etheridge, whom I'm hardly a massive fan of, Vicci exerts too much control over her vocal whereabouts to REALLY do a Janis-flat-out-power-and-risk thing, to leap into a note as if it's her entire life and to throw the dice as to whether or not her vocalization of the note she's just put everything on is going to lead her into position to address the note that follows. Anyway, hope to get the chance to hear what else Vicci's got.
As for the guys, I don't know. Maybe men don't know how to be in the world anymore. Crisis of masculinity, blah blah blah. Jeff Jenkins dresses in godawful hayseed anti-fashion, but he's got a nice voice, a better vehicle for feeling than Scotty had over on Idol.
*[UPDATE: YouTube killed the Meg & Dia track I was linking, but it might well have been "Indiana." Here.]
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 08:36 am (UTC)Also, a bunch of the contestants do country, and that's taken for granted, and at least three of the contestants are clearly gay, and that seems to be taken for granted too, I guess. I hope. Gay country isn't yet taken for granted, however.
With Dia on The Voice, and this guy on Dancing With The Stars, it's a big year for Korean Americans on reality TV talent shows:
no subject
Date: 2019-11-16 04:04 pm (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QmrQySukr4
Dia Frampton
Date: 2011-06-12 01:22 pm (UTC)Dia....shy?
Date: 2011-06-12 01:27 pm (UTC)She was not completely open about her past and neither were most of the other contestants who are nearly all professional singers, but this is the age of the internet, google "Dia" and you'll know who she is. Dia, I think purposely likes a little privacy and sometimes throws a "fake" bone out there. For example, she is not half Dutch. Yes, generations back she has some Dutch blood in there plus some English. (Perhaps there is a relation to Peter??)
Meg and Dia as a band have been withering on the vine. They have a small group of loyal fans but their time in the music world was limited. No matter how much you love music, it's tough to make a living for five band members when everything is downloaded for free. The world would not have had much more of a chance to here Dia sing but thanks to "The Voice" she has gained a few followers...scratch that, a lot of followers.
So I say, let her sing. Let a bigger audience hear this beautiful voice. Let's not be so critical about an "undeclared" past. Let her sing.
Re: Dia....shy?
Date: 2011-06-12 06:06 pm (UTC)There's another way to "read" her terror (when asked in the blind audition how she felt, after getting loud applause and being selected by both Cee-Lo and Blake, the latter within seconds of hearing her start singing, the word that came out of her mouth was "terrified," which is obviously not the only possible response to potentially getting recognized for one's merits): it isn't that she doesn't trust her ability - or anyway, that's only a piece of the mistrust, and she wouldn't be there if she didn't know she had ability - but that she doesn't trust her welcome. She may be right not to, but it seems as if she and/or the show have already made a bit of that decision in advance, that she's not altogether welcome.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 06:59 pm (UTC)I think the things you're probably most worried about is my favorite things, when you go for those notes and there's a little, and there's that slight break in your voice, I love that, I think that's the thing that surprises me 'cause you just don't like to go there, I don't think, but it's really good, it's really strong. Let me ask you a quick - do you know, there's a thing on YouTube that I've watched of yours a lot, and you're playing piano on it: do you think, would you be comfortable playing piano on this song?... I think part of your stage fright is, if you had something that you could dump that nervous energy into, I think it would look really cool and it's something that you can focus on you know and then really, you know, let, just let your singing do what it wants to.
Dia....shy?
Date: 2011-06-13 03:05 am (UTC)Dia has an incredible voice. I have followed her career from even before she and Meg formed their band. To win this competition however, she must at least act like she is an entertainer. She must acknowledge the crowd. If she is able to do that I believe that even if she doesn't win, she will engulf a following that could be with her for the rest of her life. She did not expect to go this far and frankly, due to her shyness, I did not expect her to go this far, but if "The Voice" is truly about a voice which gives you goose bumps, then she's got a chance.
correction in my first sentence, sorry
Date: 2011-06-13 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 12:41 am (UTC)Unfortunately you won't get to listen to Xenia or Dia compete on Tuesday; Cee-Lo wanted both of them, but in each case they chose Blake - though if the show is doing eliminations too, you might get to hear Xenia do a farewell song (I surely want her to stay). Since I'm playing catch-up on YouTube, I've not mastered the elimination procedure.
Casey Weston, whom I forgot to mention above, exaggerates her country twang in a way that holds promise. She sang "Stupid Boy" in one of her auditions, which warmed me to her.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 03:55 pm (UTC)As for this week (which I didn't stream, only checked the singing on YouTube): no way was Dia going to match the surprise of "Heartless," even if she sang something else as well and as originally as that one. Still, "Losing My Religion" seemed too cautious a choice, despite my loving the song and thinking she did a good job of injecting her Dia-ness into it, the performance building as it progressed. In fact, I thought the parts where she was trying to be most original, a couple of swoops into her fluttery upper range, were unnecessary. Anyway, anticlimactic, as was inevitable, but good. Meanwhile, I hope Xenia gets a career, even if it's only at making middlebrow lite rock sound way richer than you'd expect. I grudgingly admitted to myself last week that Javier sounds at home in his style, and as he was the only one who did on that day, I appreciated it; but he's still a bore, and this week he had less command than before. But the crowd loves him. Was surprised that Adam chose Casey over Jeff, though I like her just as much. She sings with feeling; thought the arrangement defeated her, but that's what I thought last week, too. Vicci now seems overmatched, her voice drying up the more she forces it, though the crowd was in her corner. Her persona is quite appealing. Nakia for once didn't seem overbearing, and Cee-Lo gave him a slight edge, but he was creamed in the voting. Beverly surprised me by absolutely roaring and slamming her way through "The Thrill Is Gone." Didn't add anything to the world's palette, but was a good kick, leaving Frenchie's game "Look A Prayer" in the dust.
If I were to gamble on who's likely to win the thing, I'd say Beverly, Javier, Dia, and Vicci in that order, though I really have no idea, and there's a chance Vicci and Beverly will split each other's vote; I still think Dia is miles beyond the other three in artistry and feeling, and way ahead of where she was when I was paying attention to Meg & Dia in 2006; did a bit of catchup the last few weeks, not excited by the cute indie-pop emphasis track from last year's EP; do like some of the covers Dia's been loading YouTube with, the more mainstream the better; but "Heartless" still is a rocket across the sky in comparison to everything else. Anyhow, the show's gonna leave me with two singers whose future I'm definitely interested in - Dia and Xenia - and Jeff and Casey as two country singers with promise and emotion, with maybe a chance at some happy surprises from Beverly or Vicci, and something to absently hum along with from Javier. And whoever I missed who got unfairly axed in the battle rounds. Way better than this year's American Idol, where Lauren was my only hope for the future.
In other news, Erika and Dave reblogged this tweet from Ashlee:
"Sitting with @johnshanks1 talking about the new record! Feels like home :)"
Don't know if you can go home again, in this instance. Haven't been galvanized by any new Shanks in quite a while, though, for that reason, I haven't been seeking it out, either.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 06:19 pm (UTC)(on the twitter note, Aly&AJ tweeted that they've written 18 songs for the new album and are about the head into the studio for production)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 07:09 pm (UTC)