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This disc is the answer to a musical "what if?" question: what if Elliott Smith had gone to a conservatory, learned piano instead of guitar, and studied modern classical composers? Liam Singer is a talented young fellow from Portland OR whose piano playing is quite lovely and whose whispery voice is reminiscent of the aforementioned Mr. Smith. He also plays a skillful theremin on a couple of tracks. There are some operatic female vocals on "Between My Lips, Which Did Sing" (which is a musical setting of an ee cummings poem), which frankly makes that song a bit cringy for me. Several of the tracks are suites, flowing together to form a continuous whole with different sections. The disc also includes a couple of "covers" of compositions by Jules Massenet and Henry Purcell, but frankly I prefer Singer's original material. It's an interesting hybrid of pop songwriting and classical composition, and a few of the tracks are arrestingly lovely. I suppose the most prominent practitioners of this sort of thing are Rachel's, although their approach is much more "post-rock" than what you'll find here. Even if this doesn't sound like the sort of thing you would typically listen to, you might find it rewarding to give it a spin. (mike.03.05)
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