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Incredible, overlooked singer from Montreal who made beautiful, hazy, minimal electronic torch songs in the 80s. New archival compilation just dropped and it’s INCREDIBLE.
In a parallel universe, New York Grief has soundtracked a million movie heartbreak scenes (at the very least it should have been a Wong Kar Wai needle drop)
Nov 16, 2024
Related Recs
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There’s a limited selection of poets that can move me to tears without even reading through their stanzas but allowing the recollection of their words to pass over my mind — the aforementioned Bachmann is one of the real ones, T.S. Eliot is another; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, on occasion; sometimes-too Hölderlin, Herbert, Hadewijch; at least one Donne piece has this power, at least one Brecht; perhaps-too I would add cuttings of Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible — contemporarily, the lines of Paris Reid, an absolutely gorgeous young Canadian I discovered several years ago (her first published prose piece can be found in the most recent Heavy Traffic) certainly effect this movement upon me time and again … who else? — well, the only other living writer to fall on this list, and quite honestly my most exalted favourite of all-above, should be obvious to anyone who knows me … yes, yes, of course: singer slash poet slash emotional-genius Lana del Rey, my personal saint and hero … truly, her words either brought to sound or put to page surpass the Scripture to me and this I would not say if I did not mean it violently. She has held aloft my life: she is probably the third factor to my continuance. You know — as I type this — I can hear the lyrics to Venice Bitch, perhaps the greatest lyrical song ever written (though a strong case could too be made for Video Games!) echoing within and my vision swims — so overcome with emotion am I! Good God. My friends, it’s unbelievable. And everything she does is fantastic, of course, but lately I have been really been spiralling about in her demos and bootlegs and regional exclusives dating around the release of Ultraviolence, her third studio album. Pray listen; I’ll leave you with this. Say Yes To Heaven: breaks my heart. Fine China: breaks my heart. I Talk to Jesus: well, you know, onward and onward, from here to eternity…
May 10, 2023
Impossible to pithily summarize the force of this artist (in which any isolated "scream" is merely another register of space across a VERY complex vocalic spectrum), but I like this one-liner from RYM: "The world isn't a pretty place and sometimes people don't want to hear the truth." Also, if you live in NYC and have *read* about the 80s/90s AIDS crisis but aren't sure you can *feel* it, listen to her work.
Mar 22, 2024
i just discovered this woman last night and i am so moved and amazed. a ton of her music was released posthumously today. please listen. please google her. there’s a documentary about her life that’s getting a limited release soon and i already bought my ticket
Feb 21, 2025
Top Recs from @mattnida
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Hearts of Space, Echoes, Star’s End, I love them all.
I’m from the UK and it seems absurd that FM bandwidth is given over to something so slow and thoughtful. (Obviously online we have NTS and I treasure it.)
Nov 28, 2024
4d ago
I love David Sylvian's earlier work, but always deferred listening to this one due to its tortured reputation. My mistake; it's gorgeous, full of lovely late night torch songs, jazzy trip hop and widescreen string and horn arrangements from the GOAT Ryuichi Sakamoto. Looking forward to leaning further into his 00s work next.
4d ago