Sixpence None the Richer - My Dear Machine EP

[Escuchame]

And the peasants rejoiced.

Sixpence has new music up for free or name-your-price at the same Noise Trade site someone posted in a different thread.

http://www.noisetrade.com

[dgp11776]

http://www.thephorum.net/index.php/topic,3622.msg72407.html#msg72407

Anyway, I picked up nine of the albums on that site yesterday.

[Escuchame]

My bad with the double-post!

[dgp11776]

Oh, that's okay - hard not to get excited about free SNtR music!

[murlough23]

Listened to it yesterday. Impressions are still pending, but I will say that I immediately fell in love with "Around". What a lush little song.

[enemy anemone]

"frankly, my dear machine, I don't give a frak."

well maybe I wouldn't put it quite that way, but I wasn't too impressed upon first listen. one song in particular had rather annoying rhymes, and I kept thinking of cylons during the title track.

[murlough23]

"frankly, my dear machine, I don't give a frak."

LOL. Good one.

well maybe I wouldn't put it quite that way, but I wasn't too impressed upon first listen. one song in particular had rather annoying rhymes

Define "annoying rhymes". I didn't pick up on any major cliches.

and I kept thinking of cylons during the title track.

Is that a bad thing?

Listening a second time, I really love "Amazing Grace (Give It Back)". That is a very honest, vulnerable prayer. Too bad that the use of "damn" all but guarantees it'll be blacklisted at Christian radio (not that they're gonna care much about these guys if they don't get any more mainstream exposure anyway).

[enemy anemone]

it's not necessarily a bad thing, but the song wasn't cylonish enough for me to enjoy it as such. I guess another thing is that I don't relate to addressing something as "my dear machine". I mean, if I had a machine that was so dear to me that I talk to it and write a song to it about breaking its trust, it would at least have a name. I was just scratching my head during the whole thing, and that affected my ability to enjoy it.
after listening a couple more times, I still can't say I care for it, but I can see that it could fill the need for a very specific sort of song. someone has a rusty car/motorcycle/robot in the backyard, feels bad, fixes it up, takes it out for a spin, blasts this song, good times are had by all, whee!

the rhymes that I found annoying included "and if I must, I will adjust" on the above song and the chorus of Sooner Than Later. the repetitive, boring melody didn't help that.

anyway, this is all first impression stuff, not "this song is bad because this this and this". I was excited about the download and had expected to like the songs but found myself going "what the frak?" and rolling my eyes. :\ maybe I should have waited to post--the songs could definitely grow on me--but I wanted to do the visual joke while I could.

[murlough23]

it's not necessarily a bad thing, but the song wasn't cylonish enough for me to enjoy it as such. I guess another thing is that I don't relate to addressing something as "my dear machine". I mean, if I had a machine that was so dear to me that I talk to it and write a song to it about breaking its trust, it would at least have a name. I was just scratching my head during the whole thing, and that affected my ability to enjoy it.
after listening a couple more times, I still can't say I care for it, but I can see that it could fill the need for a very specific sort of song. someone has a rusty car/motorcycle/robot in the backyard, feels bad, fixes it up, takes it out for a spin, blasts this song, good times are had by all, whee!

Sounds like you're taking a metaphor far too literally here. The thing that makes you scratch your head is the thing that makes me enjoy certain songs like that. I like having that reaction of, "What the heck does that mean?", and listening further for clues.

That said, some metaphors are just plain wonky, and the reaction to them varies from person to person.

the rhymes that I found annoying included "and if I must, I will adjust" on the above song and the chorus of Sooner Than Later. the repetitive, boring melody didn't help that.

Fair enough.

anyway, this is all first impression stuff, not "this song is bad because this this and this". I was excited about the download and had expected to like the songs but found myself going "what the frak?" and rolling my eyes. :\ maybe I should have waited to post--the songs could definitely grow on me--but I wanted to do the visual joke while I could.

I'm thinking back to Sixpence's self-titled album and remembering that it took forever before I even heard a song that made me want to buy it, and then another forever before I started to enjoy the majority of the songs on that album.  thought it was slow and boring, for the most part. So I guess Sixpence is kind of a grow-on band. Divine Discontent was the exception to the rule; many of its songs were more immediately "grabby".

[enemy anemone]

the self-titled had to grow on me, too. I remember thinking that the instrumentation and chords sounded weird and jarring, but I came to love it. I didn't buy Divine Discontent but I remember liking a couple of the songs.

sometimes I do take metaphors too literally, or at least I want this to translate to that. (you remember my fussing about OtR's If A Song Could Be President.) but I do like songs that I don't totally understand. sometimes it's fun to find out what others think they mean, and once or twice I've asked the songwriter. other times I'm okay with not really knowing--it conjures up a mood or image and it just works.
the machine song just doesn't do it for me though. I'm finding it boring and irritatingly non-descriptive. "dear machine" and "mighty machine"--so vague. "all broken down in the muddy brown"-- pretty okay. but "what a dismal backyard scene"--I got the dismal image, thanks. paint the dismal scene, but adding "what a dismal scene" makes me go "well duh" instead of feeling the dismalness.

I kind of can't get over the opening of "Around". "we need you to be, need you to be...around. we need you to be, need you to be...around". this annoys me. I think it sounds whiny. if someone said (or sang) this to me I would not be inclined to stick around. I would be impatient to find out what they need me to be, need me to be. and I might also wonder "you need me to be a round what?" then I would be like "oh, you just need me to be, need me to be around. thanks for taking forever to let me know. seeya."
the instrumentation is pretty though. and I like the "sad songs growing up through the pavement" and the "two shakes in the wave of your taillights".  but the "we need you to be" is too wearying to wait through.

I dunno, I feel so nitpicky, but I expected the lyrics to be more interesting I guess.

[murlough23]

the self-titled had to grow on me, too. I remember thinking that the instrumentation and chords sounded weird and jarring, but I came to love it. I didn't buy Divine Discontent but I remember liking a couple of the songs.

sometimes I do take metaphors too literally, or at least I want this to translate to that. (you remember my fussing about OtR's If A Song Could Be President.) but I do like songs that I don't totally understand. sometimes it's fun to find out what others think they mean, and once or twice I've asked the songwriter. other times I'm okay with not really knowing--it conjures up a mood or image and it just works.
the machine song just doesn't do it for me though. I'm finding it boring and irritatingly non-descriptive. "dear machine" and "mighty machine"--so vague. "all broken down in the muddy brown"-- pretty okay. but "what a dismal backyard scene"--I got the dismal image, thanks. paint the dismal scene, but adding "what a dismal scene" makes me go "well duh" instead of feeling the dismalness.

I kind of can't get over the opening of "Around". "we need you to be, need you to be...around. we need you to be, need you to be...around". this annoys me. I think it sounds whiny. if someone said (or sang) this to me I would not be inclined to stick around. I would be impatient to find out what they need me to be, need me to be. and I might also wonder "you need me to be a round what?" then I would be like "oh, you just need me to be, need me to be around. thanks for taking forever to let me know. seeya."
the instrumentation is pretty though. and I like the "sad songs growing up through the pavement" and the "two shakes in the wave of your taillights".  but the "we need you to be" is too wearying to wait through.

I dunno, I feel so nitpicky, but I expected the lyrics to be more interesting I guess.

Wow. That time of the month, eh?

Just kidding. Sometimes I nitpick lyrics and take them literally just to make fun of them. Case in point: Elbow's song "One Day Like This". It's clearly a love song, but the line, "Holy cow, I love your eyes, and only now I see the light" to be a bit jarring. From this, I jokingly assume one of the following:

a) The singer is calling his lover a cow. This relationship is not likely to last long.
b) The singer is actually in love with a cow. This relationship is not likely to last long.
c) The singer has converted to Hinduism. This may provide a longer-lasting relationship with a cow, if he manages to get reincarnated as a bull.

[enemy anemone]

you're an ass.

just kidding.

not really.

just kidding.

[murlough23]

Hee haw.

[murlough23]

Well, I'm not going to get as nit-picky about the lyrics on this one. I've enjoyed Leigh Nash's solo output and her work with Fauxliage during Sixpence's self-imposed exile, but I've realized that she's prone to a bit of lyrical fluff apart from Matt Slocum. Having him back helps to fix the problem. That's not to say that Matt's the one solely responsible for these new songs being affecting (I actually don't know who wrote them or if they collaborated, but Slocum wrote almost all of Sixpence's prior material), or that everything Leigh did apart from the band was fluff - the Fauxliage record was cliched but also a very honest record that made it easy to sympathize. So perhaps that's why I don't mind the mix of oblique and straightforward lyrics on this EP. The songs seem to be unified in that they deal with an absence of someone or something from a person's life (whether it be God or a spouse), and the coldness felt upon realizing that absence.

The music is also an exciting change for Sixpence - I've never heard them use horns before, nor have I heard them rely on plucked strings so heavily. (Slocum always has a way of captivating me with the string arrangements.) That makes the title track and "Around" pretty exciting to my ears. "Amazing Grace" feels a little bit more like the moodier, piano-driven Sixpence heard on some of Divine Discontent's ballads, but there's an even greater sense of "discontent" to it, I guess. ("Around" also reminds me a teeny bit of "Dizzy", which is one of my all-time favorites.)

That just leaves "Sooner than Later", which might be the one weak link, since it does sound a bit like a reject from Blue on Blue. But 3 out of 4 of these songs are stellar, so I'm not gonna gripe too much about the other one being merely decent.

[danny316]

(I actually don't know who wrote them or if they collaborated, but Slocum wrote almost all of Sixpence's prior material)

Apparently it's collaborative now - Matt's made some comments on seeing her as more of an equal songwriting partner lately. I disagree with him because she can be too fluffy.

I should stop being the fanboyer-than-thou guy here, though, because I completely missed a show webcast last night where they let Paul Moak in for the whole set.
 
In case anyone's forgotten, Paul Moak is largely responsible for making Changes Come so awesome.

The music is also an exciting change for Sixpence - I've never heard them use horns before

Yes you have - JMP played muted trumpet on "The Lines of My Earth", and there were plenty of horns in the Divine Discontent sessions. They all wound up sounding pretty quiet in the final mix, with the exception of the song "Don't Pass Me By" (which, of course, was booted from the album for being too lively in the end).

Re: the lyrics to My Dear Machine, everybody gets that it's just a quick gag on the "songwriting engine" cliche some music critics use, right?

[murlough23]

Apparently it's collaborative now - Matt's made some comments on seeing her as more of an equal songwriting partner lately. I disagree with him because she can be too fluffy.

And I disagree with you, because "Easy to Ignore", "Eyes Wide Open", and "Down and Out of Time" weren't exactly fluff. (And if you're going to accuse any Sixpence song of being fluff, you should keep in mind that Slocum wrote "Kiss Me" unassisted.) Leigh's solo record was more than a bit lovely-dovey, but I think that was largely an outlet for the happier side of her songwriting that didn't totally fit Sixpence. Fauxliage had some lyrical fluff, but the lyrics there were mostly a downer - a cliche downer perhaps, but still not what I'd consider "fluff" considering the personal crisis that obviously triggered it.

Yes you have - JMP played muted trumpet on "The Lines of My Earth"

Forgot about that one. (It's one of my favorites, too - I'm not sure how I let that happen.) I think that was a single horn, so I'll amend my statement to say "I've never heard them use such a lively horn section before."

and there were plenty of horns in the Divine Discontent sessions. They all wound up sounding pretty quiet in the final mix

I said I hadn't heard them do it before. Apparently, they did it and I just didn't hear it. (Though I do remember there being horns in "Dizzy", now that you mention it. The strings were still far more prominent.)

with the exception of the song "Don't Pass Me By" (which, of course, was booted from the album for being too lively in the end).

I still haven't heard the various B-sides from those never-ending album sessions for Divine Discontent. Tried to track them down a while back, but couldn't find them on any download service.

Re: the lyrics to My Dear Machine, everybody gets that it's just a quick gag on the "songwriting engine" cliche some music critics use, right?

I hadn't thought of that, specifically, but I considered it a song that I was leaving open to further investigation to determine what  thought it meant, rather than messing it up for myself for taking it in an unintended literal context.

NP: "Throwing Punches", The Myriad

[danny316]

And I disagree with you, because "Easy to Ignore", "Eyes Wide Open", and "Down and Out of Time" weren't exactly fluff.

I always forget to give her fair credit for those - they actually blend in pretty well with Matt's stuff.

(And if you're going to accuse any Sixpence song of being fluff,

...it would be a cover.

Leigh's solo record was more than a bit lovely-dovey, but I think that was largely an outlet for the happier side of her songwriting that didn't totally fit Sixpence. Fauxliage had some lyrical fluff, but the lyrics there were mostly a downer - a cliche downer perhaps, but still not what I'd consider "fluff" considering the personal crisis that obviously triggered it.

Decent enough excuse for a different style, but I still like Matt's style better.

I still haven't heard the various B-sides from those never-ending album sessions for Divine Discontent. Tried to track them down a while back, but couldn't find them on any download service.

I think they're running a few bucks each on Amazon right now (although "Don't Pass Me By" is one of the two I still don't own a legit copy of myself yet - mostly because a few bucks is still hefty for one new song).

I hadn't thought of that, specifically, but I considered it a song that I was leaving open to further investigation to determine what  thought it meant, rather than messing it up for myself for taking it in an unintended literal context.

Oh - maybe I should have warned that I was posting spoilers, then. They've actually said that it's about getting back to playing songs together, so I figured the cat was out of the bag.

[murlough23]

I always forget to give her fair credit for those - they actually blend in pretty well with Matt's stuff.

Indeed. I had to look them up to remind myself which ones she wrote.

...it would be a cover.

Groan. That's what I get for not being specific. If you were going to call any original Sixpence song fluff...

Decent enough excuse for a different style, but I still like Matt's style better.

I think it's fair for a band's songwriting to represent the personalities of everyone in the band who wants to contribute. Whether there's a difference in quality, I think it's too soon to tell.

I think they're running a few bucks each on Amazon right now (although "Don't Pass Me By" is one of the two I still don't own a legit copy of myself yet - mostly because a few bucks is still hefty for one new song).

I don't buy CD singles. I only ever bought them to get my hands on rarities, which is no longer necessary now that stuff can be downloaded a la carte. I try to stick to buying CDs that I won't have to change again in a few minutes.

Oh - maybe I should have warned that I was posting spoilers, then. They've actually said that it's about getting back to playing songs together, so I figured the cat was out of the bag.

That's a rather obtuse way of saying it if that's what they're getting at, but whatever, I like the song.

And... spoiler? This isn't a TV show.

[enemy anemone]

Re: the lyrics to My Dear Machine, everybody gets that it's just a quick gag on the "songwriting engine" cliche some music critics use, right?

I guess I haven't paid attention to those music critics; I hadn't heard the cliche. but I did think that the song referred to the band getting back together again.