
"Virginia" is built on a rickety saloon piano in 3/4 time.
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There are surprising corners to stumble on in the arrangements: the brooding "i will do this for the rest of my life" ends with some skirling backwards guitars, while "i was my own favorite tv show the summer my tv broke" ends in a little pink-blue sunset of viola, cello, glockenspiel, and harmonium. When the song launches into double time, a sawing viola traces the arc of Ray's melody before he sings it. The glimmering riff on "Library" is based on a simple chord progression, but Ray's dense, arpeggiated playing locates a hypnotically cyclical tune in it that is almost as catchy as his unassuming vocal lead. But on repeated listens, you hear a serious songwriter's mind at work. The sound is so warm and reassuring that you initially miss the complexity and craft of the music. To Be Close to You streams by in a soothing murmur that registers as intimate above all.
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Tape hiss isn't a background element here, it's an instrument: on some songs, it's practically the lead singer. "Recorded at various places over a long period of time," the liner notes indicate, and you can hear, in the busy shuffling of the players and the constantly changing room-space, the tape player being plopped in a series of bedrooms.įor lo-fi or home-taping pop aficionados, this kind of sound world is a reward in itself, and for hardcore fans, To Be Close to You will be instantly inviting. The sound has the blotted, bleedy edges you associate with the tape medium every sharp edge smoothed out, every sound muffled and half-swallowed. It was recorded straight to tape, an act of aesthetic devotion that ensures singular focus on things like incidental sounds: In between songs, you hear doodly guitar moments, muffled coughs, the muttering and teasing of his band mates. To Be Close to You is their first official release. He probably didn't need to issue such a ringing pronouncement Julia Brown, while softer, explore similar darkness with a sweet sadness that does, in fact, feel grown-up. Ray introduced his new band to his fans with a defensive flourish: "If you liked Teen Suicide 'cause of pop songwriting you'll probably like the new band but if you just liked the really over-dramatic drug addict depression catharsis stuff you'll be disappointed and I'll be glad," he wrote on the Teen Suicide Facebook page. Ray grew weary of the melodramatic band name, apparently, and all it implied, so Teen Suicide perished, and the hushed and lovely indie pop outfit Julia Brown was born. For a while, Maryland singer/songwriter Sam Ray was in a group called Teen Suicide that was intensely loved by a few.
