Just seen a Krall sized space in the CD store

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:04 pm

This evening in rainy Dublin I was in HMV on Grafton Street and saw something great - two empty shelves in the Jazz section with stock cards saying The Girl In The Other Room - Diana Krall.

Yes - the disc may very well be on sale here tomorrow , Good Friday , or , at the latest , Saturday. In a curious - but welcome! - tradition here discs that are due for release on a Monday usually go on sale the previous weekend.

Yippee!!!!

To top that my tickets for her show here next December arrived in the post this morning. It seems mad to have them so far ahead - so many things can happen in eight months!!!

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:21 pm

So close! It's like that movie... where two people keep almost meeting, whatever that movie's called... it's like that.

DrJ

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:11 am

.......and the disc is in my sweaty hands. I just bought it for E19.99 in Music City , Dun Laoghaire , a small coastal town in south county Dublin which , irony of ironies , is very close to where Elvis used to live.

It has a fold out sleeve with lyrics of the originals , not the covers. Besides the various performance credits the` thank you` section starts with - you guessed it - Declan MacManus and ends `For my husband`.

Now I`ll go walk Dun Laoghaire pier , have a coffee in Cafe Moka ( reading The Hemingway Caper by Eric Wright - yep - it`s a very Canadian day for me ) with it`s great views of the harbour and then head home for a listen .

By the way - just to prove my musical tastes are as eclectic as Elvis` - in the same store I got tickets for forthcoming Dublin shows by Mundy , Jet and The Datsuns.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 5:13 pm

I`m on my second listen of the Krall album and I like it. Like it very much. I keep thinking of Joni Mitchell. I also keep thinking of
Tasmin Archer`s collection of Costello songs of about
10 years ago ; something about how the female voice
can be paced to include the multitude of consonants
that figure in his songs.

The simple , basic instrumentation really lets Diana's
vocals assert themselves. Reading the lyric to
Abandoned Masquerade on the bus back from Dun
Laoghaire I was extremely curious to see how their
very bleak content would be conveyed. Diana confounds
expectations by just about singing them - they are all
the more powerful for it. The semi-narration delivery
is a masterstroke. Costello fan will be especially
interested in this song since it is the only song with
a lyric solely credited to him. Though he will , of
course , get all hot and bothered and deny it the song
just has to reflect some recent experience of his.
Diana`s delivery very cleverly distances her somewhat
from the song`s content ; this is someone else`s story
but is still a story worth telling.

That`s the song that really leaps out at me now -
doubtlessly others will follow suit.

The inclusion of I`ll Never Be The Same as a sop to
the fans who expect a collection of standards is
rather witty. Truly Diana will never be the same after
this album ; letting this track appear is her way of
emphasizing the point.
-------------------------------------------------------

Abandoned Masquerade

Music by Diana Krall , lyrics by Elvis Costello

The glitter on a paint and plaster face
Is covering desire and disgrace
We could be lovers
But no one suspects at all
Once you`re inside that costume ball

And now I`m sitting here before the mirror
I have the skill still to disguise my tears
Then as the magic starts to fade
I find myself abandoning the masquerade

Even though you`re suffering
You try to hide it
And pretend you`re so nonchalant
You can cry a pool of tears
And sit beside it
Then perhaps you`ll know what you want

I hope you never feel this much despair
Or know the meaning of that empty chair
As the illusions that we made all fade away
In this abandoned masquerade

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 6:22 pm

johnfoyle wrote:.....Now I`ll go walk Dun Laoghaire pier , have a coffee in Cafe Moka

...which is where I was on Wednesday, with an It's A Bagel bagel! Stop following me!!!

Them Music City stores are odd: Huge, open till midnight and they never seem paricularly busy. I have to admit, I wasn't going to get the album but the Guardian review and your enthusiasm are hard to ignore...

DrJ

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 4:04 am

I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.
I'm not going to get the album.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 5:23 am

I think you should. Like I said, I've been underwhelmed, loads of talent, but nothing that interests me to listen to, but when a review talks of the best Joni song Joni never wrote, it's got to be worth checking out (unless you're anti-Joni, which a man of your taste presumably wouldn't be), it's gotta be worth a listen. And she covers Joni's brilliant Black Crow, which could never comer close to the original, but is a pleasing sign of good taste and Canadian lineage. Just sampled Almost Blue and the Waits song Temptation (which I don't know, which LP?) off Amazon, and it's just what you'd expect. Classy, sexy, a bit bland. Probably more interesting to check out the original songs for Costello's role. I'd rather have her (so to speak) than Jamie Bloody Cullum any day of the week. If your mantra is in part because the very term 'easy listening' makes you want to hear Janie Jones at house-shaking volume, then I know what you mean. In other words, the time is ripe for Ms Krall.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 6:29 am

I seem to remember a Flexi-Pop single by the Boomtown Rats with a song about Dun Laoghaire - if I recall, part of the song was about how hard it was to spell Dun Laoghaire.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 9:35 am

Something, something
Dull and dreary
That's the way to spell
Dun Laoghaire

Or something like that. Maybe.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 10:49 am

I'm still feeling pretty lukewarm about the whole thing. I'm not one to buy a record simply because of who so and so's spouse is. If that were the case, I'd own a lot of Yoko Ono records by now.

Of course, I should give Diana Krall some credit... she's a talented woman. But still, she never really did much for me. Why should that change just becuase the song choices are a bit better and Elvis co-wrote a song or two?

I'll probably get it for my dad for his birthday.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 11:31 am

Licentious and leery
Dull and dreary
That's the way to spell
Dun Laoghaire

-Must dig out that old Mulligan single, it was the b-side in Ireland of Like Clockwork.

This track is available as a download from the download link in this
http://www.boomtownrats.co.uk

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 8:05 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:the Waits song Temptation (which I don't know, which LP?

Far out you're a lazy bugger! It's on Frank's Wild Years (1987) and you can hear a sample of it on amazon. Oh wait, here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=music

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 3:47 am

Ta, 'boo. Nice lil excerpt. Yet another TW LP of which I am ignorant. I remember when it came out, and having loved the preceding two, thinking 'it's a must', but I never checked it out. The fact that Mrs Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan, co-wrote it with him, as she did with hang Down Your Head, is very encouraging. I love the track of this name on ST, and thought the idea to extend the character into a stage work was a good one. (Does Carlos feature?) Gotta do some serious TW exploration. Only have 5 of his LPs in the house. That's at least 5 fewer than any decent house should have.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 6:57 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:(Does Carlos feature?)

Frank's chiguagua? No. I doubt he'd have spared it from the fire, all Halloween orange and chimney red. Would have distracted him from his lifelong dream of hitting the big time in show business, I imagine.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:47 pm

Never could stand that dawg.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 4:42 am

She made good bloody Marys, kept her mouth shut most of the time...