City Breathing - Look How It's Snowing Upwards, Look How They Move Towards Heaven

There are many words that can be used to describe City Breathing's Look How It's Snowing Upwards, Look How They Move Towards Heaven CD. Some that come to mind are elegant, magnificent, ethereal and beautiful. City Breathing is a Brooklyn based three piece consisting of Arun Antonyraj, Marwan Kanafani and Ron Tucker. You've probably noticed that the album title is somewhat epic in wording, and that is definitely suitable for this band. There are only 8 songs on this one, but the CD is still over 50 minutes in length with the average song sitting within the 6 to 7 minute range. To say that the CD requires a little bit of patience is perhaps accurate, but not entirely without reward. The vocals are soothing, yes, but never comatose. Quite frankly, the fact that the songs are mellow does not mean that they are not exciting. On the contrary, their epic nature makes them some of the most enthralling and majestic pieces of music you'll hear all year. The album took me about 3 listens to fully appreciate, but now I can't stop listening to it. The way the vocals and the instrumentation complement each other to create an effervescent cinematic soundscape of beauty and melancholy is something that is often attempted but rarely successfully executed. Look How It's Snowing... is a grand achievement. Definitely worth spending some time with.

Looking to the digital future in the same way that many other bands have in recent years, City Breathing's label Roses & Hello is offering a high quality download of their CD in a pay what you can fashion. The same goes for physical copies of the album and other merchandise.

Download: We Can Retrace The Sinking Sky mp3

Download: Rain and Revolution mp3

Myspace: City Breathing
Video: Rain and Revolution on youtube
Video: City Breathing EPK on youtube

Dean & Britta - Back Numbers

So I’m stuck inside on a beautiful day because I’ve been struck with the Pink Eye, and apparently anyone within a 50 mile radius of myself is likely to disintegrate on the spot. In fact, simply reading any of my posts will make you susceptible. However, I’ll soldier forth with my blog. Thankfully, I finally got around to purchasing the latest release by former Luna members Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, “Back Numbers.” This is the perfect CD when you’re in a melancholic mood. Although it doesn’t stray all that far from the Dean’s previous work, it does give Britta more substantial vocal time which makes this much more of a standout release. The original songs on the album were again learned from the classes of the Velvet Underground, although with slightly better production. The song “Words You Used To Say,” for example, is rooted deep in Phil Spector wall-of-sound-land. At the risk of comparing them to everybody, I also think they sound a bit like Serge Gainsbourg, only in English. There’s a definite French pop-noir style to their sound, especially with the inclusion of the vibraphone on many of their tracks. The disc also includes a handful of covers, which is fine because they were obviously carefully chosen. The best of these is the Lee Hazlewood / Ann-Margret classic “You Turned My Head Around,” which really showcases Britta’s tremendous vocal talent. This is definitely a disc for a rainy day … or a sunny day when you’re stuck inside with a potentially deadly eye virus.

Downloads:
Words You Used To Say mp3

Watch the video for “Words You Used Say" on youtube.
Visit the Dean & Britta myspace page.
Purchase “Back Numbers” on Amazon.ca