NYC music lovers into charity and the mellow, thoughtful, jazzy pop style of female songwriters such as Fiona Apple and Norah Jones may want to head to Tenth Rail on 413 Tenth Ave @ 33rd St. tonight (Thursday 04.21) for what promises to be a rather smooth night in company of 3 talented NYC female singer-songwriters. Allison Tartalia (pictured) distinguishes herself for a slightly aggressive songwriting edge and for sophisticated arrangements that range from the orchestral to the electronic. Alexa Wilkinson, who has toured and shared the stage with Ingrid Michaelson and Bess Rogers amongst others, offers more intimate songs with big melodic openings, while Chloe Temtchine, who had the good fortune to licence a song for an American Express TV commercial, is the more folky of the bunch, preferring to have her beautiful voice accompanied by a simple acoustic guitar.
We've always been big fans of Luke Temple, and it's good to see that, together with the Here We Go Magic crew, the man is keeping at it with increasingly beautiful records and videos. The band's new album "A Different Ship" (stream it here) will be out on May 8, and betrays at least a partial return to Luke Temple's more intimate and melodic sound from his solo repertoire - in this regard, lend a ear to "Hard to Be Close," "Alone but Moving" and "Over the Ocean". This is welcome news for fans like us who always thought that in most HWGM material Luke's noteworthy songwriting skills seemed a little sacrificed on the altar of textural experimentation. This doesn't mean that the band's signature hypnotic, impressionistic sound is lost - it's just that these two elements work together better than they did in past records, and this is what makes this album one of the NYC highlights of the year so far. Indeed, this collection also features songs more in line with the band's past releases ("Make Up your Mind", "I Believe in Action"), which follow on the steps of brainy-pop icons like Brian Eno and The Feelies, but there's definitely a balance here, also betrayed by the almost perfect alternation of melodic songs and less traditional ones.The just released video of "How Do I Know," telling the story of a rejected dancing robot that ends up revitalizing an older man's appreciation for life, seems to reflect on this brain/heart, mechanic/organic dichotomies and somehow bring them to unity. - PDG