Dear Spangle Call Lilli Line,
I’m an incredibly stupid person and I thought you should know this.
See, I listened to your New Season EP a few weeks ago and raved about it. And that still stands…great little EP! Problem is, I was not aware that IT WAS MOSTLY AN ALBUM OF COVERS. Well, not completely…opener “Seventeen” and third track “Summer’s End” seem to be originals (listen to both here!), but I also assumed EP standout “For Rio” was also a new track. Nope, and nope. This is the THIRD time you guys have covered it, though I’d argue this version stands as the best yet. Still, I made some bad bad assumptions.
Thankfully, your recently released Piano Lesson album helped me to catch this error. The title, coupled with New Season’s mission, clued me into what was going on – a collection of piano-centric covers of Spangle Call Lilli Line songs. The album itself sounds fine, slightly moody takes on songs that help make them feel softer, like putting a pillowcase bought from Etsy over an already-nice pillow. Some songs even come out better – the vocal rippling on “Limi Side Schedule” replicating the muffling of the original but in smaller doses of weird. Plus it just sounds more…fragile? I prefer the driving force of New Season overall, but Piano Lesson is a fine-enough listen. And a great way to get familiar with a song catalog that is more sprawling than a jabroni like me expected.
If we run into one another, I’ll buy you a drink. Take care!
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTBl9RUo1PI”]