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Senior Correspondent Catherine Barson takes a listen to Vagabond Opera's latest release, "Sing For ...
By plotjunkie on Oct 18 2011 Category:SpC,Media,Music There are a couple things I’m a sucker for in music, among them are complex lyrics, killer string arrangements, danceable percussion sections, and Balkan stylizations. I’m a half-Romanian writing nerd. What do you expect? So when DJ Doctor Q offered me the chance to review Vagabond Opera’s latest album Sing For Your Lives! , he just as well have asked me: “You like breathing, right?” The answer is yes. This is the kind of music I live and breathe for.
 What I first notice while listening to this album are the lyrics. Sure, upon reading about the members of band, I already expect a superior level of technical and artistic quality in the music itself. I mean, given the members’ extensive musical education and background, it’s not really any big surprise. However as Robin Jackson starts singing on the first track, “Red Balloon”, I am blown away not onlyby how the complex wordplay matches the rhythmic structure of the song, but also how it uses non-conventional rhyme endings. As a result, the delivery of the words comes along with an ease that seems natural and conversational, more concerned with telling a story rather than making the next line perfectly rhyme. Not every song follows in this respect. “Beard and Moustache” sounds a little forced in squishing lyrics into lines. On the other hand, considering that English is not the first language of Ashia Grzesik, the songwriter for this particular track, I still find it quite impressive and well written.If there is any word to properly describe the music on this album, it is “fusion”. There is a very strong blend of Eastern and Western European music styles. The band seamlessly blends waltz and tango rhythms with Balkan and klezmer instrumentation and ornamentation, and vise versa. The songwriters even manage to throw in some operatic vocals and jazz percussion into the mix. I am impressed, though, with how just about every track has a moving quality to it. Even slower songs such as “Lullaby” and “Penny” possess a strong, driving nature about them. You can get up and dance to pretty much every song on this album. I do, however, think that “Coimbra” seems a little disjointed and perhaps a little too abrupt in its theme and tempo changes for my tastes. Everything sings on this album. The title could not be more appropriate. The people sing, the strings sing, heck even the accordion and the saxophone sing as every song is the last song they will ever sing. It is hard to not get caught up singing along with them, especially on title track “Sing For Your Lives.”
With lyrics and music combined, Vagabond Opera creates a world of dark, but lively whimsy in this album. It is very Eastern European in its attitude of the world may be falling down around you and that’s the way life is, but that is no reason to not keep drinking and dancing. Just about every member of the band contributes their own unique style through the whole process from songwriting to recording, into a multi-faceted and cultural romp through joy, sadness, and absurdity.
If a band can project this much energy and emotion in their recordings, I cannot even begin to imagine what they are like when performing live. Until they come to Atlanta, however, I suppose I will have to keep listening over and over to this album. It is well worth it!
Catherine Barson is a contributer to the Steampunk Chronicle and a self-proclaimed nerd of many talents including costuming, belly dancing, and writing. You can follow her on Twitter, or on her writing blog: Writing Fiction With The Plot Junkie. | |