Now that the door had swung open, I was ready for the simple and unadorned beauty of "Break So Easy", the country field recordings of "Lady Memphis" (written with Jesse Harris) and "Put Me In Your Holy War" and the Dylanesque "Behind the Front Lines".
Credit must be given to producer Mike (Bright Eyes) Mogis who, in addition to some fine knob-twiddling, plays a bunch of instruments. Talk about your "Mr. Sound Textures": electric bass, electric guitars, piano, toy piano, wurlitzer, mellotron, air organ, keyboards, samples, loops, mandolin, hammer dulcimer, vibes and theremin. Mogis helps Rice turn in some fine combinations of sound, my favorite being "City On Fire", which contrasts a stripped-down singer/songwriter vibe with the majesty of sorta-Bjork orchestration. For me, Mogis is edging into Jon Brion territory.
It's funny how this musical resonance stuff works. Sure, "resonance" implies a natural response to something. Well, now when I revisit "Mid November" I have an entirely different reaction to it. Strange.
And maybe that's OK. I'm just chalking it up to being too stressed out to notice the first time around. Heck, I think I might have even missed the lupines for the first couple of minutes or so.
Article comments