A New Song

Here’s a fun song you can download that was included in the most recent Fingertips along with Jeremy’s (The Fingertips Music blogger) notes:

“Los Angeles” - The Rosewood Theives

After the old-timey piano intro, the first thing you’re likely to notice here is singer Erick Jordan’s spunky vocal resemblance to John Lennon–whom he readily acknowledges as one of his musical heroes. (There’s even a lyrical reference to “that bird that flew,” for good measure.) If this already seems like a good thing, you’re home free with this song; if however you’re trained to be disapproving of transparent influences, I urge you to relax that learned reflex and simply listen to whether the song is pleasing. Me, I find “Los Angeles” a rousing good time, for a variety of reasons. The engaging melody and crisp production are a good part of it, but to me songs often prove their mettle in the details–the little things that go on that didn’t “need” to be there but, with their presence, make everything else seem deeper and stronger and truer. I like, a lot, the meandering course the melody takes from the fourth into the fifth measure of the verse–the part, in the first verse, where it sounds like Jordan is simply singing a drawn-out “ahhh” but it actually turns out to be an “I.” Formally this is called a “melisma”–where a group of notes are used to sing one syllable–and is more characteristic of classical than pop music. I also like the stutter (literally an extra beat) in the melody line–you hear it in the seventh measure in the introduction, and each time that point returns in the verse. Sometimes the more subtle the touch–like the way the piano intro is revisited in the middle of the song but with a major chord momentarily underneath (at 2:38)–the cooler the effect. All in all this seems the work of a band that knows what it’s doing. The Rosewood Thieves are a quintet from New York City. “Los Angeles” is one of seven songs on the band’s debut EP, From the Decker House, released last month on V2 Records. The MP3 is via Pitchfork.

Click the link and listen to all of this weeks songs. I nearly always like the songs that get posted but this week’s were better than usual.

Note: All music obtained through Fingertips is free and legal to download.

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