Love songs on Valentine's Day are usually about as appealing to me as a prostate exam. In fact, now that I think of it, they have a lot in common. Both involve someone you don't know well being a royal pain in the ass and inflicting themselves upon you for no other reason than they can. At least the person doing the prostate exam has something passing for an excuse for trying to make tears well up in your eyes which is more than the person singing about either their broken heart or their truest love can say.
It's obvious I'm a cynical bastard who can't be moved by anyone or anything. Well, you're only half right. I am a cynical bastard and have had my fill of watching people have their emotions manipulated by politicians, singers, advertising executives, and all the other whores out there trying to get you to open your wallet by squeezing your heart with sentimentality and false feelings. None of which means I can't be moved by genuine emotions, including songs about the weirdness that passes for relationships between human beings. You see my problem isn't so much love songs, it's the fact they usually reduce something as complex as the interaction between two human beings to a pithy phrases or cute hook.
All of which means that when I come across someone who not only makes the effort to delve a little deeper than normal into those murky depths, but does so with intelligence and flashes of quirky humour, I want to make sure as many people know about them as possible. So, the other night when my wife came home and said she had seen this really amazing young woman performing, I was intrigued enough to listen to the two CDs she brought home with her.
Most of you won't have heard of Andrea Gauster yet, or probably know any of the material from either her six song debut CD Reverie or her follow up full length release from August 2010, We're Not Lost, both on the Toronto Canada based independent Broken Window Records label, but you should run, not walk, to either buy or download either one you can get your hands on as soon as possible.
Article comments
1 - Richard Marcus
Right on, absolutely right on - isn't it nice to be surprised in a good way- gotta love that and I do.
Eriana Marcus