So have you picked up that Montt Mardie record yet? Well have you? Have you realized it is the best record of 2009? Well have you? I have been playing it a lot. This morning in particular it has really hit me hard. It is such an immense rollercoaster ride of passion.
There are so many things that I love about Montt Mardie. I’m a sucker for his voice. I’m head over heels for that shiny gleaming production, a sound that looks like a Vespa glinting in the Tuscan sun. I’m floating somewhere up with the stars riding on the rocketship of his soaring melodies. My head and heart go turning crazy summersaults in tune with those choruses that explode like roman candles across the cornflower skies of my dreams. Most of all though I love how he threads stories through all his records; how his characters revisit in different songs, each as perfect as the one before. And much as I admire Stuart Murdoch and as much as I like his God Help The Girl record concept and album, I can’t help thinking that beside Montt Mardie’s songs of Annie and Annabelle, they are left a little wan and pale.
It’s another hook up with Andreas Mattsson in which Annabelle appears, following up on the delicious ‘Surprised’ on the Clocks duets album. This time around there’s a ‘Wedding In June’ and yes, of course that is as somberly romantic as you might expect. And of course Annie makes an appearance again, some four or five years after the High School and Phonecall Dramas. This time Montt rides a charging white horse proclaiming his love and it all sounds like some magnificent happysad carousel ride on amphetamines. Breathtaking. The more so since it kicks in after the utterly heartbreaking ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ which frankly is the most desperately wry observation on insecurity and of relationships ending I think I’ve heard. ‘May the force be with you’ indeed.
have you heard Napoleon? somewhat similar to montt mardie--hopelessly optimistic swedish "soul"/pop, loads of fun. they have friended montt mardie on their myspace even.
Posted by: keith | May 21, 2009 at 05:09