All 2 entries tagged Acoustic

Needs more strings

Radio 1 has literally jizzed itself with glee at the fact that they’ve had a positive response to starting to play the track “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s. The track has done pretty well, not least in that it reached the top of the charts in the US over a year after its initial release (as Wikipedia says, no doubt because of it’s appeal to weepy housewives as well as teenagers).

When I listen to it though, it’s just… bland. But when you listen to it closely, I think I know what’s missing; cliche as it is on an emo-acoustic track, it needs strings. Not in the first verse, of course, oh no – it needs them in the second verse. Gentle violins playing what the guitar is trying to emulate with a cellist line. Awesome.

I wish I had the skills to mash up some strings into this (I think if I had a midi keyboard it would take me all of about 20 minutes to show you what I mean), but you can just imagine in the meantime.

Amazon

Alternatively, buy it on iTunes, saving yourself £7.

Mathew Mannion : 01 Aug 2007 09:43 |  Tags: Acoustic Music Plain White Ts Strings Video |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Music for adverts

I've noticed in UK adverts recently that there's been a rather pleasing shift back to alternative acoustic music in order to sell stuff. This pleases me because I love alternative acoustic music (I'm a sensie… one for Scrubs fans to pick out) and also because it allows me to plug two of my favourite female artists because their songs have been heavily featured in two ads in the UK over the past month or so. Yay!

Vashti Bunyan

I'd imagine that to be part of the psychadelic folk movement is a little bit pressuring. I mean, do you have to get high before you sit down and play your acoustic guitar? Do you have to paint pink and yellow flowers onto your guitar and wear pink tinted sunglasses and a headband? If you're Vashti Bunyan, then you just make great music. I'd almost forgotten about a copy of her EP, Just Another Diamond Day, that someone had given to me to borrow and I forgot to give back (sorry Dan) that I'd had on to listen a year or so ago until it appeared in a T–Mobile advert.

If you like Devendra Banhart, you'll like this.

Vashti Bunyan – Diamond Day MP3 Expired [Buy 'Just Another Diamond Day']

Feist

Leslie Feist, member of Broken Social Scene, slamming hottie, awesome artist. Has only really had one hit record, Mushaboom, but that's the one that I remembered hearing on a Silent Night commercial (I think it's also been on a couple of Lacoste commercials), and it's good… Enjoy!

Feist – Mushaboom MP3 Expired [Buy 'Let It Die']

Mathew Mannion : 03 Aug 2006 01:36 |  Tags: Acoustic Advertisements Alternative Commercials Feist Music Vashti Bunyan |  Comments (39) |  Close comments |  Report a problem