Marit Larsen album preview, day two: "This Is Me This Is You"

[koganbot]

She continues to stream them, one per day, on her MySpace:

"Your skin feels like counting the bricks in the city"? She seems to be going for an even lighter touch than in Under The Surface. Meringue upon meringue. But already, on repeat plays, this gains weight. Same set-up as "The Chase": flighty in the early verse, then heavier elements show in the chorus, and strings and weeping steel cling to the later iterations. Despite the basic spriteliness of her voice, there's a risk that as the songs pile up on each other in similarity she'll end up with an emotional hush she mostly avoided on the first alb. But we'll see if the songs do pile up in similarity.

"Our love it is reduced to this is me, this is you." First time through this seems like connection, second time like estrangement: "There's nothing left to lose. Our love it is reduced to this is me, this is you." But I'm not sure. Could mean - third time? - they've found their way to the basics, bricks and cities discarded (sadly lost? or no longer necessary?). Sudden shift to a dark chord at the end, then resolving on one that's not-so-dark.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Definitely feeling estrangement. Especially in the (surprising emotional punch) fake-out ending into minor territory before the (delayed) resolution. So many layers in this one, probably my favorite so far -- since I can't do repeat listens what stood out this time was her segue into a sort of piano exercise at the halfway point (reminded me of a do-re-mi song from "Young Girls of Rochefort") that suggests...well, not sure what it suggests, but it echoes the almost child-like pointing that the love evolves or devolves into.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

(That exercise, in other words, feels very "back to basics" from a technical musical perspective.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

This doesn't include the preceding exercise, but this is the song based on the conceit from "Rochefort," anyway. Marit definitely channels a French musical sort of fizzy, understated spectacle.

[koganbot]

Interesting, the "do-re-mi" track is jazz in its chordings and instrumentation and way of playing the percussion (though it doesn't use swing rhythm), though not necessarily in the melody itself. And when I heard the minor-key fakeout in "This Is Me This Is You" I thought of jazz in a different way, the high-end jazz-influenced pop of the fifties.