I'm eating my words now. So many times I've been dismissive of these Word magazine covermounts. So many times I've scoffed that, on the occasions they include someone I really like, I already knew I liked them long before the Word CD arrived.
Now, I like Mariee Sioux a lot. I came across her when Last.fm noticed I'd been enjoying Alela Diane and Marissa Nadler, and played me a bit of Mariee's stuff to go with that. I liked it possibly more than Alela or Marissa — something otherworldly about the words and the pan pipes that so nearly tip over into being camp. It wasn't long before I downloaded her entire album from eMusic. And I've seen her on each of her visits to London in the last couple of years. I think this is probably my favourite of her songs:
So when I saw Mariee's name on the cover of this CD (unopened after nearly four years, with its cellophane wrapping still intact), I had my scoffing tongs at the ready. Look, they've added a spurious hyphen to her name, twice; look, they've used a photo that looks about ten years old.
Then I went back to Last.fm to check when I first heard one of Mariee's songs there: October 2007. And I downloaded the album in early 2008. Had I listened, marked, learnt and inwardly digested this CD, I could have discovered Mariee almost a year sooner.
Not only that, but there's a clutch of other interesting tracks either side of Mariee's, as well. Especially those by L.Pierre and Trans Am.
By the time it gets to 40% of the way through, the CD reverts to type with the retirement home rock of JJ Cale and Eric Clapton, and from that point on it lost me again — until the final track.
But let me stop trying to wriggle off the hook. For it's time, at least briefly, to stop all of my scoffing and admit I was wrong to ignore this CD.
| Buy via Discogs.com |
Discogs entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album |
Comments