Music Moment: Rachael Yamagata, “I Want You”

Rachael Yamagata – I Want You

Please enjoy this incredibly catchy and kind of snarly-sexy-fun number from Rachael Yamagata, a former member of the band Bumpus. The track comes from her 2004 LP Happenstance.

Her vocals when she does this soft growly thing sound a little like Fiona Apple, but I don’t want to draw too many comparisons to current artists because I think that is a jacked up thing to do. I will say that a lot of the backing instrumentals on her album are done by the Klezmatics, who work in the klezmer tradition of music. (And I am going to be googling the Klezmatics and seeing what’s what with their solo stuff, promise.)

This klezmer business is a genre about which I knew absolutely zero until I gave it a test drive on the wiki, but I will totally be on the lookout for it showing up thematically in pop from now on. It’s celebration music, mainly for Jewish religious ceremonies and rites of passage. It has definitive characteristics. You know, like, the wedding scene in Fiddler on the Roof, that awesome kickass bottle dance scene? Like that.

I think you can hear it in here, in the strong clarinet, trombone, and trumpet. I mean, obviously the song is not composed to be a deliberate inclusion in the genre, it’s just informed by it, and it’s done really well. Anyway, here are the lyrics to this great track and some pics of terrific singer-songwriter and hottie brunette siren, Rachael Yamagata.

You sat down next to me, like poetry to wine
Our window looked upon a yellow neon sign
I took your hand while you decided what to do
The only kiss, I ever miss, I shared with you
The other cities hold a memory still of a place
But when I dream of London, I can only see your face

I want you
And no one,
No one else will do
You, and no one
No one is the only one
To fill the empty space I hold for you

You simplified me down to slogans on the wall
I took offense, but you were right about them all
My friends are telling me I shouldn’t waste my time
But I can’t concentrate until I make you mine
I’m drawing cards and making wishes down by the well
Who would’ve known I’d lose myself in that old hotel

I want you
And no one
No one else for me
You, and no one
‘Cause no one else is strong enough,
To slow me down in time to set me free

I want you
Or no one else
No one else is fine
Oh, you, and no one
No one is the only one
To fill me up until I make you mine

Model Citizens: Can I get political with you for a second? (NSFW Carla Bruni)

New feature! Model Citizens! And I can think of no better inaugural edition.

Ladies and gentlemen, the lovely and talented Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, model, singer, songwriter, indie actress and … something else …. oh, right, First freaking Lady of France, if you please.

“Nothing was calculated, nothing foreseen. I’ve never been married before and I’m Italian and I don’t like divorce. Therefore I’m the First Lady of France until the end of my husband’s term, and then his wife until death. I know that can hold surprises but that’s just what I want.” — Bruni on her surprise wedding to Sarko, shortly after his split from wife Cecilia (who had her own lover, too, don’t panic — they’re European)

I said goddamn, Carla Bruni. Haters to the left! Her sister also is a singer/actress/model. Very slashy, those Tedeschi girls. Bruni started out modeling for Guess, Dior, and Givenchy, but gave it up to pursue her singing career. She met Nicolas Sarkozy not long after his divorce, at a dinner party in November of 2007. They were engaged by December (it is rumored). I like a woman who doesn’t let any grass grow under her feet, and it also confirms two of her often-reported quotes:

“I’m monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry.”

and

“I want a man with nuclear power.”

Kudos to keeping your eyes on the prize, Mme. Bruni-Sarkozy.

“It was immediate … I know you don’t get married in an instant and that even more, we were in the spotlight. But lovers, you know, have their own sense of time.” — On falling for Nicolas Sarkozy

Here is her cover of one of my favorite songs, widely charted by the Ink Spots and one Miss Patsy Cline, “You Belong To Me.” The track appears on her most recent album, the 2008 LP Comme si de rien n’était (It is as if nothing happened).

Carla Bruni – You Belong To Me

This has been your very, very NSFW inaugural Model Citizen dossier on Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Eskimo kisses and you’re welcome!

Music Moment: Annie Clark aka “St. Vincent”

Annie Clark is a singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name of St. Vincent. Her first album, Marry Me, came out in 2007 and got her massive attention from peers and critics. Justly, I think. It’s very well-written and performed, but her follow-up, Actor, is the one that really blows me away. So I’m putting up tracks from both and encouraging you to buy both.

St. Vincent – What, Me, Worry?

“What, Me, Worry?” is probably my favorite song by her. It comes off of her first LP, Marry Me, which, like Actor, is available for purchase directly from her label, Beggars Group, in like, every format of music-listening known to man. (Okay, not eight-track. No one is PERFECT.) This song, like a lot of her work, starts out deceptively gamine and light-hearted, then transitions, taking a sudden dip into much deeper, more solemn and world-wise territory. She reminds me of Edith Piaf this way; always with these light and skippy chanteuses, there is this darker side, this sideshow act in a midnight cabaret lurking underneath the smile and the wink. The jazz hands can also be used for digging and scratching — sometimes even at your own face, you know?

Have I abused you, dear?
You have had it to here.
You say, “Love is just a blood match
to see who endures lash
after lash with panache.”

Here is a youtube video from Shoot the Player of her doing an improv quickie version of “What, Me, Worry?” in Sydney.

She knows the videographer it seems, and so she doesn’t really get down to business until around :50. So if you don’t want to hear a lot of “a and b” chitty chat where they will “c” us later, skip to that point.

I realized these Music Moment posts tend to run really long because I like music way too much, and can’t bear to only give you half the story on someone I think is really special, so click here to keep reading about Annie Clark aka “St. Vincent”.

Music Moment: Emily Haines

New feature. Music moment. I like music. Let’s begin.

I’m thinking a lot about Emily Haines this morning. I don’t really know why. I had sort of written her off as the waifishly hot gimmick in Metric’s freak act, “ooh, the girl-fronted-yet-not-terribly-chicky band, let’s all talk about how unusual that is and perhaps buy their albums,” like I thought Metric was okay, but I didn’t know anything about her or her background, or how much she contributed to the band’s writing (I assumed she basically did not at all contribute: I am aware that I am a jerk for making that assumption, but that’s just how I roll—light misogyny with a side of cynicism). Then I ran across this solidly interesting picture of her playing the tambourine and it piqued my curiosity to read she was not performing with Metric when the picture was taken, but was rather doing solo stuff.

“I really don’t relate to the female singer/songwriter. They’re vaguely privileged, it’s a vaguely middle-upper-class thing to do – your piano lessons and you’re all precious and everyone has to hush while you go over the shadows of your emotions. I’ve always really hated that.”
— Emily Haines

In case you are unacquainted with Metric, here is one of their latest videos, the silver sparkly styling in which I definitely dig, I’m in a silvery place so for me this was very right about now, but the song I am only middling to positive-ish about:

And this is a link to the official video for “Our Hell Is A Good Life” by Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, which is her side project, when she is not simply traveling and performing solo.

I just took a spin through the wiki entry on her and discovered she was born in New Delhi, which is not something that I expected. That’s enough thinking about Emily Haines for one day, I think. Maybe I’ll come back to her eventually, maybe not.

This has been your music moment. There may never be another one, unless there is. I’m not the world’s most consistent or persevering person, sorry.