Amen Dunes - Sixteen

Damn it, not only am I not updating enough, but I'm falling behind the times!  Much to my chagrin, Pitchfork beat me to the punch here.

Who cares.

Amen Dunes is Damon McMahon: a Philly born, (for a brief time) Beijing bred, dude in New York.

This track comes to you for two reasons:

1.    that vibrato.  Growing up, my violin teacher fussed at me for giving Vivaldi big, juicy vibrato.  "It's not the style of the period."  I thought that was ridiculous.  Thin vibrato sounded weak to me.  Vivaldi is a bad ass.  Therefore, why would we dare give Vivaldi such a tinny little tease of the fingers?

Well, the obvious answer is to repeat exactly what my teacher said.  Because it's the sound of the period.  It's accurate/authentic (whatever that means).  It ain't right.

Better answer: not every piece of music needs to be indulgent.  It still takes mastery to be so precise as to not over-do it.  And, by the way, this vocal style has come and gone, it just so happens to be more rare these days.  Remember the character of the step mother in Merry Poppins?  "Our da-a-a-a-a-ghters da-a-a-a-a-aghters will be proud!!"  Remember Snow White's singing into the wishing well?  Yeah, people once tried to get this sound.  Of course, they still do (see: Conor Oberst).

"Sixteen" really does it for me because we match this vocal quirkiness with the piano, which is unrelenting.  Not anything interesting going on, chord wise, and certainly nothing to be said rhythmically.  This set-up puts McMahon's vocals front and center.  They aren't robust, but they're on point, vulnerable, and, ultimately, charming.

2.    listen to this with both mediocre and good speakers.  The reverb McMahon applied to this track wasn't revealed to me until I had it blasting in my car stereo.  It's borderline disorienting.  There are just enough points of interest to make get your attention, but not too many to over-do it.